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TWO 



CONTAINING THE 

HISTORY 



OLD NORTH and NEW BRICK CHURCHES, 



UNITED AS THE 



SECOND CHURCH IN BOSTON, 



DELIVERED MAY 20, 1821, 



AT THE 



COMPLETION OF A CENTURY 



FROM THE 



DEDICATION OP THE PRESENT MEETING-HOUSE IN MIDDLE STREET. 



BY HENRY WARE, 

3MINISTER OF THE SECOND CHURCH AND SOCIETY. 



BOSTON : 

PUBLISHED BY JAMES W. BURDITT, NO. 94, COURT STREET, 
Sewell Phelps, Printer, 

1821. 



SERMON I. 



THE OLD NORTH CHURCH. 



HAGGAI II. 3. 
Who is left among you that saw this House in her first glory ? — 

Jl he house, my brethren, in which we assemble to worship, 
has been occupied a hundred years. It was dedicated to 
that holy service to which it has always been sacred, on the 
tenth day of May, 1721 ; — a century from which date, allow- 
ing for the difference of style, is this very day completed. 
An epoch so interesting, so fitted to recall the remembrance 
of past years, and to excite to salutary contemplation on the 
vicissitudes of a transitory world, and the dispensations of 
an unchanging God ; I am not willing to pass without explicit 
and large notice. It has been customary in our churches, 
on such an occasion, to review the way through which God 
has led them, and recount the history of his providence to 
their fathers. It is a good custom. And I doubt not, breth- 
ren, that you will be interested to go back with me, and trace 
the story of this church, and the character and doings of 
its ministers and people. To this object I purpose to devote 
the discourses of this day ; and though none are left that saw 
the first glory of this house, we may thus all learn what it 
was, may find that it has at no period been withdrawn, and is 
not, even now, wholly departed. 



We are not confined, however, in this survey, to the his- 
tory of the last hundred years, but are led back through the 
seventy years previous. It is well known to many of you, 
though probably not to all, that the church in this place is 
formed by the union of two churches. When the Old North 
meeting-house, which stood at the head of North Square, 
had been destroyed by the British troops at the commence- 
ment of the revolutionary war, the minister and people unit- 
ed with the minister and people worshipping in this house, 
and became one church and congregation with them. The 
late venerable Dr. Lathrop, who so long ministered here, 
was ordained not over the church in this place, but over the 
church in North Square, and became pastor of the church 
in this place by the transfer of his relation after his own 
meeting-house had been destroyed. We are therefore 
equally interested in the history of the Old North, as of the 
New Brick* church, for it was equally the home of our an- 
cestors. It is a history, too, that deserves our attention ; for 
it was the second religious establishment in this important 
place, and numbers amongst its ministers some of the re- 
markable names of New England. To this, therefore, I ask 
your first attention. 

The town of Boston having been settled in 1630, ten 
years after the landing at Plymouth, the first building for 
publick worship was erected in 1632. This was sufficient for 
the accommodation of the inhabitants for nearly twenty 
years. The population had then so increased as to render 
another building necessary ; and accordingly the people in 
the north part of the town, which was most populous, built 
the second meeting-house, at the head of North Square, in 



* The present building retains its original name of the New Brick. 
The church is known by the style of the Second Church, as it was a min- 
ister of the Second Church under whom the union was made. The name 
of the Old North is dropt. 



1649.* The church was gathered there on the fifth day of 
June the next year, and consisted at first of seven mem- 
bers. (1.) A sermon was preached on the occasion by Sam- 
uel Mather, — a native of England, but educated at Harvard 
College, — who was earnestly solicited to remain as pastor of 
the church ; but for reasons of which we know nothing he 
went to England, and was for twenty-one years minister in 
various places, an eminent and respected man. (2.) After- 
ward Mr. Norton, minister of Ipswich, who two je^rs after 
became minister of the first church in this town ; and Mr. 
Davenport of New Haven, who seventeen years after also 
became minister of the first church — both of them among 
the distinguished men of that period ; and " sundry others 
who were officers in other churches, but likely to remove 
from the places where they were ;"J were invited, unsuccess- 
fully, to take charge of this infant church. For a few years, 
therefore, one of the brethren, Michael Powell, conducted 
the worship of God's house, and to such satisfaction that he 
would have been ordained Teacher, had it not been for the 
interference of the General Court, who "would not sufler 
one, that was illiterate as to academical education, to be call- 
ed to the teaching office in such a place as Boston ;"3; — a 
circumstance which is well worth noticing, as it exemplifies 
the jealous care with which our fathers guarded the dignity 
and character of the publick institutions of religion. After 
four years passed in this state, Mr. John Mayo, who on ac- 
count of some " difficulties and discouragements" had left his 
church at Nosset in Plymouth colony, was called to the 
pastoral office here, and ordained the 9th of November, 
1655. At the same time, Mr. Powell was ordained as Ruling 

* I do not find any account of the Dedication, and cannot tell whether 
the meeting-house was first occupied in 1649 or 1650. 

(1.) The figures refer to the notes at the end of the sermons. 

X Church Records. 



Elder of the church. Mr. Powell was soon after incapaci- 
tated for all labour by a paralytick affection, and his office 
became vacant.* I do not find that it was ever again filled. 

About this time,t Increase Mather, brother of him before 
mentioned, returned to this country, and was soon invited to 
the office of teacher in the Second Church. After two 
years' hesitation he accepted on certain conditions, and was 
ordained the 27th day of May, 1664. 

The pastor and teacherj continued labouring together 
until the year 1670; when Mr. Mayo's increasing infirmities 
made it necessary for his ministry to cease. Three years 
afterward he removed to Barnstable, and there spent the 
remainder of his days with his daughter. He died at Yar- 
mouth in May, 1676, advanced in years, but at what precise- 
age is not known. We have no means of acquainting our- 
selves with his history or character beyond what is here 
stated. (3.) 

After the removal of Mr. Mayo, Dr. Mather held his of- 
fice alone, until his son. Cotton Mather, was ordained as a 
colleague. May 13, 1684. During these years the church 
appears to have been prosperous, growing with the growth 
of the town. A great misfortune however befell them in the 
burning of the meeting-house in 1676. (4.) It was rebuilt 
the next year, and then stood for a century. The prosperi- 
ty of the church after this event may be inferred from the 
circumstance, that within six years it became necessary to 

* He died January 28, 1672—3. t September, 1661. 

I In the early records of the church these titles are applied alternately 
to the ministers as they were settled, evidently without any difference in 
the nature, tenure, or duties of the office. Cotton Mather says, (Rat. 
Disc. p. 42.) that when the churches had more than one pastor, " one of 
them formerly was distinguished by the name of teacher ; though in re- 
gard of their work and their power among these churches, it has been so 
much distinctio sine differentia, that more lately the distinction is less re- 
garded."" 



build a gallery for the better accommodation of the hear- 
ers. (5.) 

Indeed the character and reputation of Increase Mather 
were such, that we should expect to find a crowded attend- 
ance on his ministrations. He was one of the eminent men 
of his times, and few possessed and wielded a wider influence. 
And although there were those, as there always will be 
around an elevated man, especially if he take a leading part 
in political transactions, who were inimical to his authority ; 
yet in church and state, in religious and in civil affairs, he 
was looked up to as a leader, equally active, distinguished 
and trusted. This was partly owing to the peculiar stat€ of 
society amongst the early puritan settlers, who in their de- 
sign of forming a "Christian Commonwealth," naturally 
placed much of the power of government in the hands of 
the rulers of the church : and the authority, which was in 
the first years exercised by the holy and able ministers who 
led the feeble colonists,* and by their energy and prayers 
sustained them in their dark <lays of fear and danger ; 
continued to abide to the last with Increase Mather. We 
must not, however, attribute too much to the character of 
the age ; much, doubtless, was owing to the rare qualities of 
the man. For three generations (6.) that family w^as distin- 
guished by extraordinary gifts. There were many men 
amongst them on whom nature had bestowed the power to 
be great, and they evidenced that power in the influence 
with which they swayed their fellow men. Increase Mather 
had his full share of these qualities. Ardent, bold, enter- 
prizing, and perhaps ambitious ; conscious of his ow^n pow- 
er, religiously sensible of his obligations to exercise it 

* No instance of this authority is more remarkable than that of Cot- 
ton, minister of the first church. "Whatever," says Hubbard, "Mr. 
Cotton delivered was soon put into an order of court, if of a civil, or set 
up as a practice in the church, if of an ecclesiastical concernment." 



8 

usefully; born and trained in a young colony struggling with 
hardships, and forcing its way through peril and fear ; his 
mind fashioned by a father, who for conscience' sake had 
quitted all and settled in this hopeless land, and who had all 
the zeal and firmness which characterized the puritans of 
that age, a race eminently formed '' to do and to dare ;" — 
thus gifted and educated, he became peculiarly fit, and no 
wonder it was felt that he was fit, to have an ascendency 
and exercise a control. He had received the best educa- 
tion of his own country, he had completed it abroad, he 
had been driven from place to place, suffering for his reli- 
gion, and presented with strong temptations to abandon it, 
thus acting a hurried and various part in the most trying 
times in the mother country — and after this discipline, so 
calculated to give firmness and character, he returned to la- 
bour in the service of this infant state. (7.) Nothing can be 
conceived more likely to prepare a man to act well his part 
in so peculiar a scene. He soon became eminent. Talents, 
learning, and virtue are always commanding. In that age 
a religious spirit was indispensable to honour and power. 
Mather had all. He was conspicuous for rigid piety where 
all were rigid, and eminent for talents and knowledge, where 
many had been eminent before him. It therefore is not 
strange that he acquired a control to which few are equal, 
and received and held honours which would not now be be- 
stowed upon ministers. 

We find proofs of his ascendency in several remarkable 
transactions. When King Charles II. in 1683, demanded 
from the colonies an unqualified resignation of their char- 
ters, it was principally by the authority and influence of 
Increase Mather that the people refused to make the surren- 
der. He not only wrote upon the subject, but went to them 
in publick meeting, and exhorted them not with open eyes to 
rush upon their ruin, but to do their duty and trust the event 



9 

to God.* The example of Boston decided the question 
throughout the country ; and this is one of the early in- 
stances in which the lead was taken by this town in those 
spirited measures of opposition to arbitrary oppression, for 
which the descendants of the puritans have been always 
distinguished. The charter, however, was forfeited ; and a 
governour was sent overt with unlimited authority to make 
and administer what laws he might please. This authority 
he exercised in a most oppressive manner; which at length 
so excited the indignation of the people, that it was resolved 
to send an agent to England to represent their grievances to 
the king. (8.) No one was found so fitted to this important 
labour as Dr. Mather, who accordingly sailed for England 
in April, 1688. During that year the English revolution 
took place, and it was not until four years after that he ac- 
complished his commission and returned home. Upon his 
arrival^ with a new governour and another charter, the Gen- 
eral Court appointed a day of solemn thanksgiving, with 
honourable mention of his exertions in behalf of the state. 
But the satisfaction which it yielded him was not unmixed. 
Many were dissatisfied with the result of his negotiations,!! 
and parties were formed. Some of his old friends forsook 
him, and he found, like others before him, that the troubles 
and anxieties of political eminence are very insufficiently 
compensated by its honours. 

* " The clergy," says Hutchinson, " turned the scale for the last time. 
The balance which they had held from the beginning, they were allowed 
to retain no longer." 

t By James, in 1686. ^ May 14, 1692. 

II His task was undoubtedly a very difficult one, and he was himself 
far from being altogether satisfied with the terms he was able to obtain. 
This he acknowledges in the pamphlet which he published on the sub- 
ject : but complains of the unreasonableness of those, who accused him 
of having done nothing, because he had not accomplished all that was 
desirable. 

2 



10 

But his peculiar distinctions and happiness were in the 
church. He was eminently fitted for the work of the min- 
istry, and held high rank as a writer and a preacher. His 
manner is represented to have been grave, dignified, and im- 
pressive. He never carried his notes into the pulpit, gene- 
rally committing his sermons to memory, and oftentimes 
preaching extempore, — especially during the years in which 
he was president of the college, when he had little leisure 
for writing : for so devoted to him were his flock, that they 
would consent to his holding that office only on the condi- 
tion that he continued their minister; and when it was made 
necessary for the president to reside in Cambridge, he resign- 
ed the office for his people's sake. (9.) His sermons are 
written in a manly and forcible style, less marked than 
might be expected by the peculiar faults of the age, and 
contain passages of the most powerful eloquence. His fa- 
vourite topicks appear to have been those of practical reli- 
gion, which he inculcated in all the severe strictness and 
occasional superstition of that age, and with great energy 
and warmth. Few sermons present a stronger image of the 
entire sincerity of the writer, and the anxious workings of 
his own feelings. They are remarkable for their copious 
historical illustrations,* which appear to have presented 
themselves spontaneously to his mind ; and not less so for 
their frequent lamentations over the degeneracy and depart- 
ing glory of New England. He bewailed in most pathetick 
strains the rapid decline, which he witnessed, from the strict- 
ness of the first settlers, and was often sounding the alarm of 
an exemplary vengeance to overtake that evil and perverse 
generation. " The interest of New England," he says, " is 
changed from a religious to a worldly interest." " Such sins 
as formerly were not known in New England, have now be- 

* This is true as a general remark, though particularly so of his occa- 
sional sermons. 



11 

€ome common, such as swearing, sinful gaming, &:c. ; yea, 
the present generation, as to the body of it, is an unconvert- 
ed generation." He elsewhere adds to this catalogue of sins, 
drunkenness, tavern hunting, even on Saturday evening, and 
neglect of the sabbath, the ordinances, and family worship. 
He cries out also against the lax discipline of the church, 
and the common substitution of a merely historical belief, 
for the rigid saving faith, which was once regarded as essen- 
tial. (10.) These complaints sound strangely in our ears, 
who have been taught to believe that the manners of that 
age were universally pure, and to regard them with venera- 
tion as presenting a model for imitation. But such com- 
plaints are made in every age. There are always those 
that imagine the world is going backward, because it is not 
guided by their own rule, and does not resemble the picture 
their fancy has drawn of times that are past. And we should 
be comforted amidst the lamentations of present degeneracy, 
that they were equally loud a hundred and thirty years ago, 
and on account too of the same sins, which are said to be 
our peculiar curse. No doubt changes were perpetually 
occurring ; and those who had known the country when it 
consisted, as we may say, of but one little family, would 
readily imagine every departure from the simplicity and 
strictness of family discipline and order to be evil ; and yet 
it might be not only unavoidable, but upon the whole advan- 
tageous. The anxiety of Mather upon this head is a most 
honourable proof of his devotion to the welfare of religion 
and of his country ; it was the spirit of genuine piety and 
patriotism. But it evinced also how much he was governed 
by the impressions of education, and the circumstances of 
the times in which he lived. 

And these had made such impression on his mind, that 
he looked as fearfully on the growing charity, as on the 
growing vices of the age. He does not appear to have been 
bigoted or uncandid in his own private feelings. While in 



12 

London, he tells us, " he did his utmost to promote a union be- 
tween the Presbyterian and Congregational churches ;" and 
in a neighbouring town he assisted to ordain a minister of the 
Baptist denomination, and spoke with satisfaction of the part 
he had taken in it. And yet he could declaim loudly against 
toleration, and pronounce it to be fraught with the deadliest 
evils. " Toleration," he says, " of all religions and persua- 
sions is the way to have no religion at all left." " I do 
believe that Antichrist hath not in this day a more probable 
way to advance the kingdom of darkness."* (11.) 

This alarm in regard to the state and prospects of the> 
country was mingled with that superstition of the age, which 
likened the Commonwealth to the commonwealth of Israel, 
and which accordingly expected perpetual interpositions of 
providence in favour or judgment. Every calamity — storm, 
fire, and sickness — he represented as special visitations of 
God for the sins of the people, and endeavoured with all the 
energy of his eloquence to rouse them to a sense of their 
sins, that they might by repentance avert the wrath.t On 
the appearance of the comets in 1680 and 1682, which he 
verily believed to be the forerunners of calamity, and pub- 
lished a considerable treatise in support of the opinion (12.) — 
he came forward with loud exhortations to repentance and re- 
formation, denouncing the irritated anger of heaven, and con- 
fidently predicting a heavy day of vengeance and darkness. 

It is not at all strange, when we consider the character 
of the times in which he lived, that his ardent and devout 
mind, which had been trained to " see God in every thing 
and every thing in God," should be thus affected with super- 
stitious notions of the government of the world and the ap- 
pearances of the heavens. The strongest and best minds 

* Election Sermon, 
t His sermons on such occasions were principally preached at the 
Thursday Lecture, and appear to have made an impression, as I find some 
of them passed throue:h two editions, and some through a third. 



13 

are as liable as others to submit to the prevalent opinions of 
the age, and their doing so is no proof of deficiency in tal- 
ents or in judgment. The character of this eminent man 
stands upon other grounds ; and while it can be sustained up- 
on them, it is but a small thing that in some points it par- 
takes of the infirmities of the world in which he moved. 

Such was the man by the light of whose instruction and 
example our church was blessed for more than sixty-two 
years, and who for sixty-six years was a preacher of the 
gospel. He died August 23, 1723, in the eighty-fifth year 
of his age ; — undoubtedly one of the most distinguished men 
of the day ; " one who was indeed a great man while yet 
but a young man, and a notable preacher of Christ in some 
of the greatest churches of England and Ireland, before he 
had been twenty years in the world. A great man, and one 
adorned with great endowments of knowledge and learning 
and prudence, which qualified him for stations and actions 
and even an agency for his country, wherein the most emi- 
nent persons in the nation, and three crowned heads took a 
kind notice of him." Indeed, whether you consider the ex- 
traordinary honours that attended him while living, or the 
general sentiment which has followed his memory, or consult 
the writings which he has left behind him ; you will pro- 
nounce him a man richly endowed by nature, richly furnish- 
ed by education, and deservedly numbered with the most 
pious, learned, and useful men of New England. The day 
of his death was a day of general mourning. An honoura- 
ble funeral was given him, such as few citizens had been 
known to receive before, and every testimony of affection 
and veneration accompanied him to the tomb. The feelings 
of that day have passed away ; the eyes that knew him and 
wept for him have long been sealed in death ; and other 
generations have risen and gone by and been forgotten. But 
the name of Increase Mather still lives ; and when hundreds 
of generations shall have sunk to irrecoverable oblivion, he 



14 

shall still be hailed, as one of the early worthies of New 
England. 

The most important event relating to these churches, 
which occurred in the latter part of his ministry, was the 
division of his church, and the establishment of two new 
congregations. With the increase of the town, the Old North 
had become excessively crowded, and inconvenient for the 
worshippers. A secession accordingly took place, and the 
New North was built in 1714. In 1721 a difficulty arose 
among that people about the settlement of a minister, which 
issued in a separation and the building of the New Brick. 
In this difficulty the pastors of the Old North took an almost 
paternal interest, and the ordination of the first minister of 
the New Brick was the last which Increase Mather attended. 
Of these events I shall speak further in another place. 

Cotton Mather, who had been colleague with his father 
for thirty-nine years, survived him but four years and a half. 
He died, after an illness of five weeks, February 13, 1728, 
the day after he had completed his sixtj-fifth year, having 
been minister forty-four years. He was a man of equal 
fame with his father ; and although I have already detained 
you so long, it is impossible to proceed without dwelling at 
some length on the character of the son. 

His original powers of mind were doubtless equal to 
those of his father, and his industry and learning far superi- 
our ; but he was deficient in judgment and good taste, and 
therefore, with all his attainments, became rather an extraor- 
dinary than a great man. His character was a very mixed 
one. You would regard him with wonder and admiration, 
but hardly with a feeling of entire confidence. His religious 
sense was as strong as his father's, but it was mingled with 
more superstition, and was perpetually bordering on fanati- 
cism, and running into the unprofitable observances of the 
ascetics. The desire of being useful was clearly one of his 
powerful ruling principles, and few men have formed so e:jc- 



15 

tensive systematick designs of active usefulness ; yet he in- 
jured this by talking too much about it, and by a little too 
much parade in it. It is not easy to arrive at satisfactory 
views of his character. There was a mixture in it of so many 
qualities apparently inconsistent, some exciting your vene- 
ration and some your pity, that it is difficult to arrange them 
in one view so as to form a connected whole. While you 
look with astonishment at his labours, and acknowledge his 
praiseworthy zeal, you are mortified and vexed to find the 
most excellent designs frustrated, and the most indefatigable 
exertions wasted, through the mere want of a discriminating 
judgment. It makes you melancholy to observe, that after 
a life of almost incredible industry, after publishing three 
hundred and eighty-two books, large and small, and leaving 
others of vast labour behind him ;* after years spent in un- 
wearying efforts to do good, to extend knowledge, and pro- 
mote religion, which, if well judged, might have placed him 
in the foremost rank of great men ; — his name and works are 
viewed by posterity rather as phenomena to be talked about, 
than as substantial blessings. 

His principal work, the Magnalia, has been much sought 
after as a curiosity; and that it has been so regarded is 
proof sufficient that its merit is quite equivocal. As a store- 
house of documents and facts relating to the early history of 
the country, it may be consulted with advantage ;t but it is 

* The principal of these is his favourite work, about which he was oc- 
cupied for many years, Bihlia Americana ; a learned illustration of the 
scriptures of the Old and New Testament. It was proposed after his 
death to publish it in three volumes folio, but the design was dropped for 
want of sufficient encouragement. It is now in the library of the Histo- 
rical Society. 

t " He knew more of the history of this country," says Dr. Chauncy, 
" from the beginning to this day, than any man in it ; and could he have 
conveyed his knowledge with proportionable judgment, and the omission 
of a vain show of much learning, he would have given the best history of 
it." 



16 

so strangely written as to become heavy in the reader's 
hands, and so mingled with the creduUty and pueriHty of the 
author's own mind, that even Neal, a cotemporary writer and 
correspondent, hardly ventured to cite him as an authority. 
Indeed, he was credulous to a deplorable degree of weak- 
ness, giving easy credit to all tales of supernatural appear- 
ances, providential interposition, and diabolical agency ; re- 
lating them as matters of sober history; and by his authori- 
ty and influence feeding the flame of superstition and perse- 
cution in which so many unhappy wretches perished on the 
accusation of witchcraft in 1692. That he not only fell in 
with this popular delusion, but rather fostered and excited 
it, I am afraid is too plain to be doubted. He set his seal 
to all that was believed and done, to the shame of himself and 
his country, by publishing on the subject what aided the fury 
of the times, and will witness against him to the latest gene- 
ration. 



• I confess I have not been able to see so clearly into this matter as I 
could desire. The whole history of that delusion it appears to me lies 
very much in the dark. In regard to the agency of Cotton Mather, 1 
presume it will not be questioned, though it may not be easy to decide 
precisely what was its nature or extent. Neal makes it evident that he 
favoured the delusion ; and Watts, in a letter to Mather, tells him, Mr. Neal 
" hopes you will forgive him that he has not fallen into your sentiments 
exactly." Hist, of JV. E. vol. i. Hist. Coll. vol. v. But there is no ne- 
cessity of going so far for testimony, while we have his " Wonders of the 
Invisible World," — the work to which I have alluded above. Mr. Brattle 
of Cambridge, in a letter pubhshed in the Historical Collections, says that 
Increase Mather " did utterly condemn" the proceedings of this period ; 
and that " the Rev. Elders throughout the country, except three, are very 
much dissatisfied." Cotton Mather is not named as one of the three, and 
therefore probably when this letter was written had changed his opinion. 
For he did finally acknowledge in writing that things had been urged too 
far. Yet, in the life of his father, written thirty-two years after the delu- 
sion was at its height, he expressed his firm belief, that all was to be attri- 
buted to supernatural agency. I wish it were clear that he did not do 
more than any one in urging this belief to its fatal consequences. 



17 

As a preacher, he differed much from his father; having 
less strength, and more rhapsody, less dignity, and more de- 
clamation. The quaintness and singularity of his style was 
not well suited to the gravity of the pulpit, and appears to 
have been a subject of complaint even during his life time.* 
And yet there was so much warmth and zeal, so much 
earnestness and sincerity, so evident and pious longing to do 
good, " his spirits were so raised and all on fire," to use the 
expression of one who knew him well,! that his faults seem 
to have disappeared in his excellencies, and his preaching 
was impressive and effective. He seems to have been fond 
of dwelling on doctrinal subjects. " He was a vigorous de- 
fender," says his colleague, " of the reformed doctrines of 
grace, and of the mysteries of revealed religion, which he 
ever regarded as the excelling glory of the Christian dispen- 
sation." In other words, he was a zealous Calvinist, and it 
is certain that he was quite thorough in its creed. He did 
not forbear to state its tenets in their most contradictory and 
revolting form ; — as if he gloried in being able to set them 
before him in full array, and thought to magnify the merit 
of that faith, which could receive them notwithstanding their 
intrinsick difficulties.^ 

He was as zealous in his adherence to the Congregational 
mode of church discipline, as to the articles of his creed. 
This was a matter of great interest at the early periods of 

* Neal complains, in a letter to Dr. Colman, of " the puns and jingles 
that attend all his writings 0' and Mr. Prince, in his funeral sermon, says 
that " in his style he was somewhat singular, and not so agreeable to the 
gust of the age." 

t Funeral sermon by Mr. Prince. 

I This remark will be found principally exemplified in a sermon on 
Election and Reprobation, and his " Address" on Quakerism, entitled 
Little Flocks guarded against grievous JVolves. Also, in the complaints 
which he makes in the Magnalia of Baxter's departing in some respects 
from the strictness of the Calvinistick faith. 

3 



18 

our history, when all remembered it freshly as the cause in 
which their fathers were driven from their homes, and were 
exceeding jealous of any attempt to innovate in matters of 
discipline, or to introduce, under any pretence, the burdens 
of the Episcopal church. " No church upon earth," he 
says, " so notably makes the terms of communion run paral- 
lel with the terms of salvation."* It was through this watch- 
ful and suspicious fear of innovation, that the church was 
induced, in 1697, to send a letter of admonition to the 
church in Charlestown " for betraying the liberties of the 
churches by putting into the hands of the whole inhabitants 
the choice of a minister." (13.) 

The sentiments which he expressed concerning tolera- 
tion were much more just and rational than those which I 
have quoted from his father, and mark the growing liberali- 
ty of the age. " Persecution," he says, " for conscientious 
dissents in religion is the abomination of desolation ; a thing 
whereof all wise and just men will say. Cursed be its anger, 
for it is fierce, and its wrath^ for it is cruel."! He says else- 
where, that he " abhors it ; has preached against it, and writ 
against it ; he would have the Quakers treated with all imagi- 
nable civility, and not have the civil magistrate inflict the 
damage of a farthing for their consciences." With an incon- 
sistency, however, perhaps not very rare, he refrained from 
all " civility" in his own treatment of them, and took every 
occasion to abuse them and make them odious.]: He is not, 
however, the only man, who has imagined nothing short of 
imprisonment and the stake to be persecution. There are 
many, who with the utmost virulence have gone on destroy- 
ing reputation and influence, while they were sedately talking 

* Letter to Lord Barrington. 

t Right Hand of Fellowship at the ordination of Mr. Prince, 1718. 

X See divers passages in the Magnalia, and his Address, or Quakerism 
Displayed, which abounds with something like scurrility. 



19 

of toleration and the rights of conscience ;— as if they 
thought, with some theorists on government, that life, liberty 
and property are the only good of man, and that influence 
and a good name, which make life liberty and property 
worth having, may be wantonly taken away without in- 
justice. 

In the contrast which I have mentioned, between what is 
to be admired and what is to be deplored, it would not be 
strange if we erred in our estimate of his character. His 
foibles thrust themselves upon our notice, and will not be 
hidden — while to learn what should redeem them, we must 
be acquainted with all the history and habits of the man. 
That there was something in these to redeem them, is clear 
from the great influence he sustained both in church and 
state, notwithstanding his palpable imperfections. He was 
more than once instrumental of great good to the state by 
this influence in times of excitement and confusion ; and in 
the church he was certainly an object of great respect, and 
in spite of his assuming, to say the least, all the consequence 
that belonged to him, yet he was able to retain that conse- 
quence. Still it is clear, on the other hand, that it was then 
felt that something was wanting to complete the man ; for in 
two vacancies* in the presidency of the college, when his 
unquestioned learning and talents and age gave him a clear 
claim to the office, and the people, who regarded him as a 
prodigy, called aloud for his election, yet the place was de- 
nied him, and given to men his inferiours in every respect, 
except judgment. This failing was palpable, and universally 
admitted, and this prevented him from being one of the 
greatest of men. 

From his very childhood he had been distinguished by 
his attachment to religion and to books. He was graduated 

* In 1706, when President Leverett was chosen, and in 1726, when Dr. 
Colman, Dr. Sewall, and Mr. Wadsworth were successively elected. 



20 

at the age of sixteen, the next year joined his father's church, 
and began to preach when eighteen, having by great pains 
cured himself of a stammering in his speech, which once 
threatened to forbid him the profession. His ministerial 
gifts were at once appreciated, and having been for some 
time assistant to his father, he was ordained as his colleague 
May 13, 1684. (14.) In this situation, the arduous duties of 
which he was far from slighting or neglecting, he was able 
to read and write more than any man probably ever did in 
America. " There were scarcely any books written," says 
Dr. Chauncy, " but he had some how or other got a sight of 
them. He was the greatest redeemer of time I ever knew." 
This was the opinion expressed by all who knew^ him, and it 
gained for him many honours, and an extensive correspond- 
ence among distinguished men abroad. 

In the duties of the ministerial office he appears to have 
been eminently faithful and successful. He was much in the 
habit of private admonition and instruction, endeavouring, in 
his own peculiar way, to start some advice or reproof from 
every occurrence, and perpetually inventing new devices for 
doing good. " To do all the good he could to all," says one* 
who knew him intimately, " was his maxim, his study, his la- 
bour, his pleasure." — He was full of private labours to this 
end, and he favoured and assisted many publick institutions 
for this object. It was he that, in spite of obloquy, insults 
and threats, introduced the practice of inoculation for the 
small pox as a bar to the fatal ravages of that disease; and 
with the same ardour and disinterestedness, gave his time to 
other purposes of publick good, civil, as w^ell as moral and 
religious. A book, which he wrote upon this subject of doing 
good,t is perhaps his most valuable work. Dr. Franklin at- 
tributed to it all his usefulness and eminence in life ; and I 

• Mr. Prince, 
t " Essays to do good." It has been republished within a few years 
at Boston. 



21 

think no one could read it without receiving enlarged notions 
of his capacity and obligation to do good, and being stimu- 
lated to better attempts. With these active works of reli- 
gion, he united an austerity of private discipline, that would 
have honoured a monastery. He kept frequent days of fast- 
ing, and nights of watching, sometimes for two and even three 
days together — regularly once a month, and occasionally 
once a week. 

But it is impossible to proceed in particulars. I have 
gone far enough to shew what I intended, that, notwithstand- 
ing his great defects, which strike you at first view, and can- 
not be concealed, he absolutely was, as he was always ac- 
knowledged to be, a most wonderful man. It is barely doing 
him justice to say, in the language of his colleague,* that " the 
capacity of his mind, the readiness of his wit, the vastness 
of his reading, the strength of his memory, the variety and 
treasures of his learning, in printed works and in manuscripts, 
which contained a much greater share, the splendour of vir- 
tue, which, through the abundant grace of God, shone out in 
the constant tenour of a most entertaining and profitable con- 
versation ; his uncommon activity, his unwearied applica- 
tion, his extensive zeal, and numberless projects of doing 
good ; these things, as they were united m him, proclaimed 
him to be truly an extraordinary person." When he died it 
was felt as a publick loss, and he was honoured with a funeral 
of uncommon splendour. He was mourned, according to Dr. 
Colman's expression, " as the first minister in the town — the 
first in age, in gifts, and in grace — the first in all the provin- 
ces of ^ew England for universal literature and extensive 
services." (15.) 

Cotton Mather was alone in the care of the church only 
four months during his whole ministry, Joshua Gee being or- 
dained colleague with him soon after the death of his father. 

* Mr. Gee's Sermon on his death. 



22 

Mr. Gee is represented on all hands as having been a verj 
superiour man — not possessing popular talents, but of great 
profoundness and learning, excelling in argument, and capa- 
ble of rising to any height of excellence ; but unhappily of ' 
an indolent habit, which prevented his making that use of his 
advantages, which would have secured to him the ascenden- 
cy for which he seems to have been formed. His character 
was particularly marked with zeal and fervour. He was 
somewhat bigoted to high Calvinism, and somewhat bitter 
in controversy. — He was an earnest promoter of the religious 
excitement, which prevailed throughout the country after 
Whitfield's first visit ; and refused to open his eyes to the 
evils which attended it, even after many of its friends had 
become convinced of their existence. And when the Con- 
vention, in 1745, felt it a duty to bear testimony against cer- 
tain errours in doctrine and practice, which prevailed to the 
great confusion of the churches, — he warmly and rather pas- 
sionately opposed them ; and was the occasion of a separate 
Convention in the following September, which issued a coun- 
ter testimony. (16.) With all his great qualities, he was, as this 
transaction proves, rash and over-ardent 5 so that Dr. Chaun- 
cy, who knew him well, said, " it was happy Mr. Gee had 
an indolent turn; for with such fiery zeal and such talents, 
he would have made continual confusion in the churches." 

His ministry in this church continued for twenty-five 
years. He had been an invalid for many years, and died, 
after a lingering illness, May 22, 1748, in the fifty-first yeaF 
of his age. (17.) 

He enjoyed the society of his venerable colleague but 
four years. When at his death the people looked round for 
one to succeed him, their choice fell upon his son, SamueL 
Mather, who was ordained over them June 21, 1732, about 
four years after his father's death. (18.) He was recommended 
to them, not only by their respect for the ancient family, but 
by his own character for diligence, zeal and learning, of 



23 

which he certainly possessed an uncommon share. He had 
already made himself known by several publications, espe- 
cially by his Life of his father. He continued in the minis- 
try but nine years, when, on account of some dissatisfaction 
with his preaching, which was thought by some to be not 
sufficiently explicit upon certain points of doctrine, together 
with some other grounds of uneasiness, a division took place 
in the church, and he with one party withdrew and erected 
a separate place of worship. This was in 1740 and 41, and 
possibly had some connexion with the religious excite- 
ments of that period, about which his colleague, Mr. Gee, 
was so zealous. He continued to be the minister of a sepa- 
rate congregation until his death, at the advanced age of 
seventy-nine years.* By his own directions he received a 
private funeral. Most of those who at that time were wor- 
shipping with him, returned to this church ; and some are 
with us still. 

After the removal of Mr. Mather, Gee remained sole pas- 
tor, until, in his declining health, Samuel Checkley was united 
with him the year before his death. (19.) He was the son 
of an eminent minister of the New South church, and is said 
to have been distinguished for a peculiar sort of eloquence, 
and an uncommon felicity in the devotional service of pub- 
lick worship. He published nothing, except one sermon on 
the death of Mrs. Lydia Hutchinson, and left the records of 
the church so imperfect, that little can be learned from them 
of its state and fortunes during his connexion with it. He 
died, after a ministry of twenty-one years, on the 19th of 
March, 1768. 

He was succeeded in the ministry by the late Dr. Lathrop, 
(20.) whom you well knew, and whom all that knew honoured. 
During his ministry the Old North meeting-house Avas de- 

* June 27, 1785. 



24 



stroyed, and the church and congregation formed a union 
with those worshipping in this house. 

Having thus brought down the account of the ancient 
church to the period of the union, I leave it for the present, 
that I may resume it in the afternoon, when I shall first have 
followed the history of the New Brick to the same period. 



SERMON II- 



THE NEW BRICK CHURCH. 



I THIS morning spoke to you of the origin, establishment, and 
history of the Old North church, and of the lives and char- 
acters of its ministers, until its union with the New Brick at 
the close of the revolutionary war. I now go on to a simi- 
lar account of the New Brick church. It originated in cir- 
cumstances not very honourable or happy. It had its birth, 
not from the regular overflow of increasing population, nor 
was it a separation of brethren in the spirit of Christian love, 
but it was the offspring of heated passions and violent dis- 
sention. The circumstances, as far as can be positively 
ascertained, or are important to be known, appear to have 
been the following. 

The New North church was established in 1714. It was 
regularly and peaceably gathered in the necessary course 
of a growing population. They had ordained one min- 
ister, the Rev. John Webb, and, agreeably to the custom 
of the times, were desirous of settling another in connexion 
with him. In consequence of some irregularities in the pro- 
ceedings of those who were most active in the affair, " they 
fell," as their records express it, " into unhappy and divided 
circumstances." The principal ground of division was in 
regard to inviting a minister already settled. Many desired 
4 



26 

to call to this place Mr. Peter Thacher, then over the 
church in Weymouth, a preacher of great popularity. Oth- 
ers esteemed it contrary to Congregational usage and princi- 
ples ; and in this dispute, fermented probably by private and 
local circumstances, of which we have little account, their 
passions became heated, and they approached at last, in a 
state of exasperation which gave little promise of unanimity, 
to the choice of a minister. The choice fell upon Mr. 
Thacher, which was ratified in the congregation by a major- 
ity of one, and that, it is said, was obtained by the casting 
vote of the minister. A great storm of trouble ensued. 
The ministers of the town, who unanimously agreed in dis- 
approving the measures of the majority, interfered, and ad- 
vised a reference of their difficulties to a council. This not 
being done, they gave the church to understand that they 
wished not to be invited to attend at the ordination. — The 
ordaining council was composed of only two ministers, one 
of whom came with the consent of his church, accompanied 
by delegates ; and the other alone, in opposition to the vote 
of his church. The most violent attempts were made to 
prevent their proceeding, and it was only by being conduct- 
ed by a private passage, that the council obtained possession 
of the meeting-house. Here a scene of the most outrageous 
and disgraceful tumult occurred. It is difficult to give credit 
to all the stories of the indecencies which were acted there ; 
it is certain, however, that after one more ineffectual attempt 
at a mutual council, the ordination proceeded in the midst of 
a disorder little inferiour to the uproar in the theatre at 
Ephesus. The discontented members separated themselves, 
to the number of forty, and in the course of the next year 
erected the building in which we now worship. (1.) 

This house was dedicated on the 10th of May, 1721. A 
day of prayer and fasting was kept on the occasion, and two 
discourses were delivered, one by Cotton Mather, many of 
Avhose congregation were engaged in the new design, and the 



27 

other by Mr. Wadsworth, minister of the first church, and af- 
terward president of Harvard College. The house appears 
to have been regarded, at that time and for many years 
after, as a building of uncommon elegance and taste. The 
preacher expressed only the common opinion, when he 
said, " I suppose there is not in all the land a more beautiful 
house built for the worship of God, than this whereof you 
now appear to make a dedication to the Lord. But what 
will it signify," he added, " if the beauty of holiness be want- 
ing." A church was gathered amongst the worshippers, 
May 22 of the next year, consisting of ten persons, six of 
w^hom were from the New North, and three of them had 
been original members of that church. (2.) One of the 
deacons chosen at this time, Thomas Lee, lived to be ninety 
years old, and died in 1769, having survived all the original 
members of this church and congregation. 

On the same day, William Waldron was ordained the first 
pastor. (3.) His ministry was short, being only of five years'' 
continuance, when he died at the age of thirty. The inte- 
rests of the church appear to have flourished beneath his 
care. If we may judge by the representations of those who 
knew him, he was a man of uncommon promise. In the ma- 
ny sermons which were published on occasion of his death,* 
he is spoken of, not in the language of common-place eulogy, 
but in the genuine accents of unaffected lamentation, and 
sincere respect and love. There appears to have been a 
mixture of the severity and simplicity of an apostle, with 
affability and urbanity, which secured to him respect as a 
minister and warm attachment as a friend. Ministerial cour- 
age was an eminent trait of his character, and this was unit- 
ed, as you might expect to find it, with great activity in the 
service of the gospel. His death appears to have excited 

* I have in my possession a volume containing sermons on the occasion 
by C. Mather, Webb, Foxcroft, (with a dedication by Cooper,) and Wads- 
worth. Sam. Mather also published a sermon. 



28 

a very unusual sympathy, not solely, it would seem, on ac- 
count of his own distinguished worth, but as " he was the 
youngest minister by fourteen or fifteen years that had yet 
died in Boston," and because there had been, for several 
preceding years, a succession of deaths among the younger 
ministers almost as remarkable as that, which has desolated 
our churches for the last twenty years.* These circum- 
stances doubtless contributed, together with the rapidity of 
his disease, to produce the deep and general feeling with 
which he was lamented.! 

After an interval of about six months, William Welsteed, 
who had been for some time a respected tutor at the college, 
was invited to fill the place vacated by the death of Mr. 
Waldron, and was ordained on the 27th day of May, 1728, 
He preached his own ordination sermon. He continued to 
hold the office of pastor singly for a little more than ten 
years, when Mr. Ellis Gray was united with hiai as a col- 
league ; in which relation they remained together fifteen 
years. (4.) 

During this period of time, I am unable to say particu- 
larly what was the state of the congregation. I cannot learn 
that it was remarkably flourishing or remarkably otherwise, 

* " We have seen within these few years many other sorrowful instan- 
ces of early death among those of the ministerial order, and many mor« 
among Christians of a private character. I could reckon up above a 
dozen in the ministry, that have in a few years past been removed by mor- 
tality in their youth, or in the meridian of their days, who were all useful 
in their places and some of them eminently so." FoxcrofPs Sermon. 

He gives in a note a list of twenty-one who had lately died within the 
state, of whom " several were under thirty, and the most not above for- 
ty." Within what period of time, it is not stated. Mr. Cooper, refering 
to the same mortality, says, " the removal of valuable and excellent per- 
sons is, alas, no uncommon thing in this land of dying.'''' C» Mather, in 
the preface to his sermon, speaks in a similar strain. 

t Foxcroft says, " I find his death as much regretted amongst us as 
almost any I have known ;" and Cotton Mather speaks of the " sorrow, 
yea, a general, a very uncommon sorrow.'" 



29 

I 
but it probably enjoyed about the ordinary share of pros- 
perity. The two pastors were not among the most distin- 
guished in town, though faithful and highly respectable men. 
During the great religious excitements of this period, they 
appear to have fallen in with the current. I find, however, 
from a well written, serious, animated sermon, delivered 
in 1 742, at an ordination, by Mr. Gray, that he was fully 
aware of the dangers and evils of that period, and did not 
hesitate to speak of the "discord, division, bitterness, clam- 
our, wrath, evil speaking, groundless surmises and jealous- 
ies,*' which prevailed in the churches. Neither of the min- 
isters, however, were among the leaders on either side, 
though possibly it was to his opinion on this subject that 
Welsteed alluded, when he said, in his last illness, " I have 
in some things thought differently from my brethren, but I 
thank God I have constantly meant well." 

It was at this period, that our evening lecture before the 
communion was established ;* and at the same time the sea- 
son of the communion was changed from every fourth week, 
to the first sabbath of every month. After two months, how- 
ever, the vote was reconsidered, and the old term of rotation 
restored, which continues unchanged to the present time. 
It was during this period, the year after the ordination of 
Mr. Welsteed,! that the custom was dropped of singing by the 
separate reading of each line. In 1735, after much debate, 
it was determined to have two Ruling Elders in the church ; 
an office which had become almost obsolete, and which, after 
this attempt to revive it, sunk forever.]: In 1751, [July 10,] 
Watts' Psalms and Hymns were introduced in the worship of 
the sabbath, and continued in use until superseded by Bel- 

* March 15, 1741. t July 31, 1729. 

X This matter of the Ruling Elders was debated at numerous church 
meetings from March 17, 1735, to November 11, 1736 ; — at which time 
only one person (Deacon James Halsy) had been found to accept the of- 
fice, and the church at laet voted not to chooge another. 



30 

knap'^s Collection in 1817, [No\r. 9,] — a period of sixty-six 
years* 

The circumstances attending the death of these two min- 
isters were remarkable and melancholy. Gray died sudden- 
ly on Lord's day, January 7, 1753, in the thirty-seventh year 
of his age, and fifteenth of his ministry. We have little means 
of knowing intimately his character, but he is represented 
to us as a man much respected, of early and uniform piety, 
remarkably given to hospitality, and directing his life, says 
Samuel Mather,* as if he had perpetually in view Paul's de- 
scription of his own conversation ; — " that in simplicity and 
godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of 
God, he had his conversation in the world." If we might 
Judge of his gifts in preaching by the two sermons which I 
have seen, we should assign him quite a respectable rank 
as a writer, and as a man of talents and piety. 

His colleague, Welsteed, survived him not quite four 
months. He died on the 29th of April, having been struck 
with palsy the preceding Sunday, just after the commence- 
ment of the morning service, having lived fifty-seven years, 
and been minister twenty-five. Here was the melancholy 
spectacle of a church in mourning for two pastors at once, 
both cut off suddenly in the midst of life. And to render 
the visitation yet more affecting, they both died of the same 
disease, both died on the sabbath, on the communion sab- 
bath, at the same time of day ; each having preached for 
the last time to his own people, and the last sermon preach- 
ed by both being on the same subject — " redeeming the time, 
because the days are evil."* 

Welsteed is characterized as a man of eminent sincerity 
and integrity, " good natured, contented, patient, and always 
ready to every good office of morality and religion, and 
conscientiously diligent in his ministerial labours, especially 

* Sermon after the death of Welsteed and Gray. 



31 

in his preparation for the pulpit." In preaching, it was re- 
marked of him, that " he was careful not to insist on those 
points, about which wise and good Protestants have different 
sentiments ;" but confined himself to " those doctrines of re- 
ligion, which are not disputed amongst sound Protestants, 
and the impressive duties of repentance, faith, love and uni- 
versal and constant obedience." This sufficiently expresses 
to us the nature of his views of religion, and it is corrobo- 
rated by the circumstance, that he derived particular sup- 
port in his last days, " from his upright walk before the 
Lord, and his consciousness of it." This fact is mentioned 
by the preacher on his death with great emphasis, as if to 
mark the character of his faith.* 

After the death of Gray and Welsteed, the pastoral office 
was vacant eleven months, and was then filled by the in- 
stalment of Ebenezer Pemberton, previously minister of a 
Presbyterian church in New York, and a preacher of un- 
common popularity, who. attracted crowds by his captivat- 
ing manner. In the earlier part of his life, he had been 
chaplain at Castle William, and in 17271 had been ordained 
minister of a Presbyterian church in New York. The or- 
dination took place in the Old South church, and Dr. Col- 
man preached. After a ministry in that city of twenty-two 
years, he, together with his colleague, Alexander Cumniing, 
were obliged to relinquish their places on account of dissen- 
tions in the congregation, although it is said they took no 
part in the disputes. This was during the vacancy occasion- 
ed by the death of Mr. Welsteed, and he was soon invited to 
succeed him* The installation took place the 6th of March, 
1754, and his ministry lasted twenty-three years. (5.) 

It was during his ministry that the Old North meeting- 
house was destroyed ; and when the inhabitants returned to 
their homes, after the evacuation of the town, this meeting- 

* S. Mather's sermon. t August 9. 



32 

house being sufficiently large to accommodate both congre- 
gations, they worshipped together for three years, and then 
a junction was formed which has proved perpetual. (6.) 
Dr. Pemberton died before this event at the advanced age of 
seventy-two.* During the last years of his life, he had lost 
that extraordinary popularity, which followed him at first, 
and his manner was thought to be even so disagreeable, that 
the congregation in consequence became extremely thin. 
He was esteemed however as a faithful minister, and is stat- 
ed to have been particularly remarkable for a " fervid kind" 
of piety. " He vehemently aspired after the spirit of the 
gospel, and had the consolations of it during a long and try- 
ing sickness."! He was a strict Caivinist, the last min- 
ister of that faith in this church, in his earlier days exceed- 
ing zealous against hereticks, though in later life he grew 
more candid. In these particulars he resembled Whit- 
field, of whom he was a warm admirer and adherent, and 
whose eulogy he pronounced at his death. He was not a 
man of remarkable powers of mind, but well acquainted 
with books, and had the command of a style not only cor- 
rect, but elegant and oftentimes beautiful. He published a 
volume of sermons a few years before his death, on salva- 
tion by grace, which, besides the ordinary views of that sub- 
ject, which you might expect from one of his faith, contain 
many appeals and exhortations that are not wanting in pa- 
thos and power. 

When Dr. Lathrop took charge of these churches, after 
their union, he had been ordained over the Old North elev- 
en years ; and he afterward accomplished a faithful and 
honourable ministry of thirty-nine years. Of his life, char- 
acter and labours, you do not need, brethren, that I should 
speak to you ; for they are familiar to your memories. Ma- 
ny of you have grown up from childhood under his minis- 

* September 15, 1777. t Dr. Eliot, Biog, Dictionary. 



33 

try, and retain for him a filial and affectionate respect ; and 
all can remember his venerable and serene old age, when 
for years he presented the only hoary head that appeared 
in our pulpits, was the father amidst a numerous clergy 
much younger than himself, and became an object of in- 
creasing interest and value as he drew nearer his home. No 
one, who ever knew him at all, can forget the benignity of 
his appearance, the apostolical simplicity of his chai^cter, 
his gentleness and affectionateness of disposition, and his de- 
votion to the best interests of his country and of man. Af- 
ter a long life, in which he gave himself much to publick 
cares, and was the faithful patron of many of our best insti- 
tutions, he passed to his reward on the 4th day of January, 
1816, at the age of seventy-six years. 

His successor was ordained on the first day of the next 
year. (7.) The history of the remaining time I need not re- 
peat. It has been a season of tranquillity and prosperity, for 
which we should be devoutly thankful. And I congratulate 
you, my brethren, that the century, which began in discord and 
strife, we have seen close in perfect harmony ; that the con- 
gregations, which separated from each other with hostile 
feelings and enkindled passions, we see walking together in 
love, and minding the things that make for peace, and unit- 
ing as sister churches in the nearest offices of Christian fel- 
lowship. Long, long may this continue ; never may it be 
interrupted ; may no greetings, but those of love, ever pass 
between them ; — but when, century after century, to the end 
of time, this day shall come round, may they be still found 
striving together only in love and good works — with one 
faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all. 

We have thus looked back upon the history of this unit- 
ed church through a series of one hundred and seventy 
years. We have traced its ancient branch from that time, 
when there was but one other in the town, and when the 
whole neighbouring country, instead of a flourishing land of 
5 



34 

civilized inhabitants, presented to view only an uncultivated 
desert, trodden by savages, with here and there a few settle- 
ments, which had been reared as cities of refuge for perse- 
cuted puritans — who tilled the fields with their armour girded 
on, and kept their sabbaths and their fasts with muskets by 
their sides 5 from that perilous and romantick period we 
have traced it, step by step, seeing it grow under the abun- 
dant blessing of Heaven, and the toils of celebrated men, 
till it has sent off one after another company to erect new 
altars to the Most High, and at length blended itself with a 
younger church, which it had favoured in a day of weakness 
and fear, and then received again to its bosom the remnant 
of those, who had once gone from it in the day of division. 
We have traced the other branch from its birth, precisely a 
century ago, and followed it through the various discipline 
of God's judgment and mercy ; till at length it was reconcil- 
ed to its sister, and received beneath its roof its venerable 
ancestor : and now, to-day, we rejoice together in the way 
through which God has led us these forty years of our 
union. We notice the vicissitudes of the world, the flight of 
time, the providence of God toward our land, and gather les- 
sons of wisdom from a consideration of the past. We look 
up to Him who planted and watered this vine, and has caused 
successive generations to see its beauty and partake of its 
fruit, and exclaim with the pious king of Israel, The Lord our 
God he with us as he was with our fathers ; let him not leave us 
nor forsake us ! 

In the period which we have been thus surveying, two 
changes have taken place of such magnitude and importance, 
that they cannot escape our observation. The first is in re- 
gard to the observance of the ordinances of our faith. In 
the days of our fathers, the number of those, who felt so far 
bound to their religion as to observe its peculiar rites, was 
much larger than amongst ourselves. During the ministry 
of the Mathers, the average number of those annually ad- 



35 

mitted to the communion of the church, was twenty ; in se- 
veral years rising above fifty, and in that preceding the 
death of Cotton Mather, amounting to seventy-one. The 
number during his ministry was eight hundred and forty- 
eight ; more than the whole number of communicants for the 
last seventy years. With respect to the other ordinance, the 
difference is quite as remarkable. The number of baptisms 
during the last thirty-nine years of the period just mention- 
ed, was three thousand three hundred and eighty-four ; being 
a yearly average of eighty-six, and rising in several instan- 
ces to more than one hundred and thirty. This shows the 
difference of Christian fidelity in regard to the positive ap- 
pointments of religion. Not that there is probably less real 
Christianity. There is no reason to believe, that the general 
mass of the community is worse in faith or in practice than 
at that time 5 in many respects it is certainly better. But in 
those days there was a strict adherence to all the forms and 
external observances of the gospel, on which it was the char- 
acter of their faith to lay peculiar stress ; whilst we are too 
much satisfied with a very general regard to what we call 
the spirit of religion, and are prone to undervalue its positive 
institutions. So that, while our places of publick worship 
are as fully and seriously attended, and the purposes of 
Christianity in ordinary life as well accomplished, the table 
of the Lord witnesses a thinner attendance,* and more of our 
children grow up without baptism. It is undoubtedly a bet- 
ter understanding of the nature of our Lord's kingdom, which 
elevates the spirit above the form. But why will not men 
learn, that they may avoid one extreme without rushing to 

* Though I speak here in general terms, I refer particularly to this 
church ; for I am not able to decide how far it may be warranted as a 
general remark, I know myself of many exceptions. To take for exam- 
ple the church in West Boston ; it appears from a sermon lately published 
by the pastor, that the admissions to that church for the last sixteen years 
have been twenty on an average ; which is equal to the best days of the 
Mathers. 



36 

the other ? When will they feel the force of that admonition 
of our blessed Lord — These ought ye to have done^ and not to 
have left the other undone ? 

The other change, to which I alluded, is that which has 
taken place in the views of religious faith, which have been 
here presented and professed. This is a most important and 
happy change. The church was established on those doc- 
trines, into which men settled when they first broke from the 
Romish domination, which had been confirmed amidst the 
passion and excitements of contention with the English 
hierarchy, and were finally set in an authorized form during 
the violent storms of a civil and religious war. These doc- 
trines our ancestors held, and the founders of this church 
received them as they were fashioned and exhibited by the 
Assembly of Divines at Westminster. One of the eminent 
puritans, the minister of the first company of pilgrims, had 
warned our fathers not to bind themselves to the faith as 
then established. His great mind perceived that the refor- 
mation was not yet accomplished. He was assured, he said, 
that God had still more light to break forth from his holy 
word ; and he exhorted them not to stick where Calvin and 
Luther had left them, for they saw not all things. And yet, 
for a long time there they did stick. But at length the light 
he had predicted broke forth, and the eyes of one church 
after another were opened. For nearly fifty years, the doc- 
trines of Calvin have not been heard within these walls ; but 
a milder, happier faith has won sinners to heaven, and com- 
forted the hearts that tremble at God's word. Brethren, I 
congratulate you on the change. I rejoice with you, that we 
are not bound down to any form of words of human device, 
nor enslaved by the fear of man to any set of opinions pub- 
lished to the world by pope, council, or assembly. I joy 
with you, that we can say to-day, the Bible only is our creed; 
we drink from none but this fountain of living waters ; we 
have not committed, and we will not commitj either of the 



37 

two evils, the forsaking this, or the going to other cisterns, 
broken cisterns, that can hold no water. — You cannot value 
your privilege too highly. If there be any loud call for your 
gratitude to-day, it is for this blessing, in which it has pleas- 
ed God to distinguish you beyond your fathers. And I en- 
treat you, consider, if they, less favoured in the rights of 
conscience and the inestimable blessing of religious liberty, 
were yet so devoted and zealous men, of whom the world 
was not worthy, — consider what manner of persons you 
ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Put not 
from you their love of the scriptures, their faithful at- 
tendance on the publick and private worship of God, their 
eminent and firm attachment to principle, their fidelity in the 
religious education of their children. Let it never be said, 
that with increasing privileges there is a decreasing religion. 
But, as you hope at last to join them in that world, where 
your errours and their errours shall be alike removed, and 
all shall see with one eye, let it not be then found, that with 
your better knowledge you have fallen short in th^ race, 
while their higher attainments rise up to your shame and 
condemnation. 

The occasion reminds us what a changing and dying 
world we live in. This house has stood for a hundred years 
— and who is there left among you that saiv it in its first glory ! 
Every one of the crowd that thronged it then has long since 
departed to his eternal home. Five successive ministers 
have laboured here, and gone to their account. Even in the 
memory of many present, every seat has changed its occu- 
pant. You seek the friends whom you once met here, and 
they are gone. Time has more than once swept clean these 
seats ; and how soon will it be done again ! The celebration 
of a day like this, no man can hope to see twice. When 
Xerxes looked upon his immense army, and thought that in a 
hundred years not one of that multitude would be living, he 
was overcome by the reflection, and wept aloud. I would not 



38 

have you wee;?, brethren, as the same thought passes your 
mind in looking round you now ; — for the Christian in his 
church should regard time and death with other views, than 
the heathen at his army's head ; — but I would to God you 
would pause and consider. The time is short. A century ! 
What is a century ? Ask the man of eighty, who has almost 
seen that term, and he will tell you it is as yesterday when 
it is past ; it is but as a day and a night, and he that has sur- 
vived it, does not feel that he has lived longer than when he 
had lived but twenty years. Yet in that space what changes 
occur ! The strong men and women, and the very children of 
this assembly, shall in that time be no more numbered among 
the living ; the youngest child here, yea, the very infant that 
we have this day offered in baptism, shall have witnessed all 
the fortunes of life, and perhaps worn a grey head for years, 
and perchance grown weary of a helpless and burdensome 
old age, and then slumbered for years in the mighty congre- 
gation of the dead, before a century shall close. In a cen- 
tury, ^ties flourish and decay, the boundaries of nations are 
broken up, and the earth changes all its inhabitants again 
and again. Observe what has taken place just around you 
during that which has now past. Instead of eleven churches 
in this town, you find twenty-eight, and all have been built or 
rebuilt within that time excepting two.* You find a flour- 
ishing city instead of a small town, a sovereign state for a 
dependent colony, a mighty nation for a few scattered prov- 
inces. And who can number the changes in the old eastern 
world ! — the improvements, that have carried the sciences 
and arts to an unequalled perfection, and the convulsions 
and revolutions, that have removed again and again the 
landmarks of empire, and elevated the low and depressed 
the high amongst the nations, like the heaving of the earth 
in the throes of an earthquake ! All this has been ; and yet 

* The New Brick and the Old South. 



39 

what is a century ? He that should have Hved through all, 
and look on the world in its present state, would almost feel 
as if the whole had been effected in a moment, by the wand of 
enchantment : — the time has fled like a dream. What then 
will time be to those, who know, as we do, that we have 
probably a small part of such a period to live ! Oh, that we 
might learn so to number our days, that we should apply 
our hearts unto wisdom ! 

Finally, brethren, permit me to congratulate you on the 
prosperous condition in which this day finds you. These 
walls have stood a hundred years, — and they still stand firm. 
Whilst you have seen most of your sister churches com- 
pelled to destroy the ancient temples, in which they and 
their fathers had worshipped, lest they should fall upon 
them in ruins, and burdened with the costly labour of rear- 
ing other places of worship ; you have the privilege of still 
assembling in this house of your ancestors, consecrated by 
age, and by the devout breathings of great and pious men 
of the times that are gone by; where the word of life 
has been preached to four successive generations, where ev- 
ery spot is hallowed as your appropriate rehgious home, and 
the very ground on which you stand is holy. There is 
something solemnly pleasing in the thought, that the w^alls 
which are echoing back the voice of your preacher and the 
songs of your praise, have resounded with those of venera- 
ble men, whose praise is in all the churches, that have long 
been sleeping in the dust, and are strangers to all themes but 
those of religion. And there is something delightful in the 
hope, that our children and children's children shall sit 
where we have been sitting, and seek the inspiration of Plea- 
ven on the same spot where we have found it. This hope, 
my friends, is yours. God, it is true, may commission his 
elements, and they shall shake this house to its founda- 
tions at once. The earthquake and storm have hitherto as- 
sailed it in vain, and it has thrice been rescued from devour- 



40 

ing flames.* Another visitation may destroy it without rem- 
edy. But in the ordinary course of providence it may see 
this day return, — and listen to the devout thanksgivings of 
those who shall assemble here — without one of us amongst 
them — to celebrate the mercy of Him, who, in the midst of 
change and death, is forever the same. And when that day 
shall come, oh, may it find our children wiser and purer and 
worthier that we. If God have any more light to break forth 
from his word, may it be theirs to see it and rejoice in it. 
And we too will rejoice in it, — as we doubt not the spirits of 
the good men that came up here to dedicate this house, are 
rejoicing in the greater light which God has poured upon us. 
May that day find all the darkness of errour and superstition 
which clouds our faith removed, and all the sins which defile 
our lives banished, and as many surrounding the table of 
their Lord, as worship at the altar of their God. Happy 
they that shall see that day ! Thrice happy they that shall 
walk in that light ! Yea, happy even these venerable walls, 
that shall have witnessed the gathering knowledge and grow- 
ing virtue of many generations, and shall then hear prayers 
of warmer devotion, and the out-pouring of hearts lifted 
nearer to heaven, and shall learn something of that purer 
and more perfect worship, which is to be the employment 
and glory of the temple above ! In that temple there shall 
be no change of day and night, and no revolution of time ; 
a thousand years shall be but as one uninterrupted day ; and 
no returning century shall warn us that life is drawing near- 
er to its close — for that life shall have no close. In that 
glorious temple, in that unchanging day, may it be our 
happiness to meet those venerable saints, who have crowded 
these courts before us, and the multitude of our posterity, 

* A memorandum of Deacon Tudor in 1779 informs us, that " the 
sudden judgments of an earthquake, terrible storm, and fire have all three 
done damage to the meeting-house within his remembrance ;" and records 
three instances in which it was in imminent danger of being consumed 
by fire. 



41 

who shall have received the beginning of that life on this 
spot, where their fathers worshipped. This is our heart's 
desire and prayer, that the power of the gospel may always 
be exhibited here in preparing men for salvation. 

And in that great decisive day, 
When God the nations shall survey, 
May it before the world appear. 
Thousands were born to glory here^ 



NOTES TO SERMON L 



(1.) p. 5. THE names of those first gathered in the church were, Mi- 
chael Powell, James Ashwood, Christopher Gibson, John Phihps, George 
Davis, Michael Wills, John Farnham. The original covenant is an instru- 
ment of some length, not at all in the manner of articles of faith, but sim- 
ply an expression of unworthiness, of dependance on Jesus Christ, and of 
resolutions to walk agreeably to the gospel. The form, which was adopted 
and used in the reception of members afterward, was in these words : 

" You do in this solemn presence, give up yourself, even your whole self, 
you and yours, to the true God in Jesus Christ, and to his people also ac- 
cording to the will of God, promising to walk with God and with this 
church of his, in all his holy ordinances, and to yield obedience to every 
truth of his, which has been or shall be made known to you as your duty, 
the Lord assisting you by his spirit and grace. 

" We then, the church of Christ in this place, do receive you into the 
fellowship, and promise to walk towards you, and to watch over you as a 
member of this church, endeavouring your spiritual edification in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." 

(2.) p. 5. Samuel Mather was the son of Richard Mather, who 
came from England for conscience' sake in 1635, and was for many years 
a worthy minister in Dorchester. He was nine years old when he accom- 
panied his father to New England, and was in the second class that was 
graduated at Harvard College. He was so much beloved as an instructer 
afterward, that, on his quitting the place, the students " put on tokens of 
mourning in their very garments for it." He went to England in 1650, to 
the disappointment of more than one church which had greatly desired his 
settlement. After five years spent in England and Scotland, he went to 
Dublin, and became senior fellow of Trinity College. Here, upon the 
king's restoration, he preached two sermons against the revival of the cere- 
monies of the English church, which were full of power and spirit, for 



44 

which he was silenced.* He then returned to England, and preached with 
great reputation until the act of conformity in 1662, under which he was 
one of the two thousand sufferers. He then returned to his church in Dub- 
lin, and preached to them without molestation in a private house the re- 
mainder of his life. He died October 29, 1671, aged 45— greatly respected 
and of extensive reputation as a preacher. During his last residence in 
Dublin, he had a pressing invitation from one of the churches in this town, 
according to Dr. Calamy, to become their minister. 

(3.) p. 6. There is little known of Mr. Mayo, excepting what is con- 
tained in the records of the church in the handwriting of Increase Mather. 
I copy it here, because it has often been said, that nothing is known of him 
except that he was minister of the Second Church ; and the records have 
been so carelessly examined, that in the Collections of the Historical Soci- 
ety (ill. 258.) it is asserted, that "neither the time of his ordination nor 
decease is to be found in the records of the church." 

" In the beginning of which year, [1672,] Mr. Mayo, the Pastor, like- 
wise grew very infirm, inasmuch as the congregation was not able to hear 
and be edified ; wlierefore the Brethren (the Pastor manifesting his concur- 
rence) desired the Teacher to take care for a supply of the congregation, 
that the worship of God may be upheld amongst us, which was for the pre- 
sent by him consented to, as Christ should enable him. 

" On the 15th day of the 2d month, 1673, Mr. Mayo removed his per- 
son and goods also from Boston to reside with his daughter in Barnstable, 
where (and at Yarmouth) since he hath lived a private life ; as not being 
able (through the infirmities of old age) to attend the work of the ministry. 
The day of third month, [May,] 1676, he departed this life at Yar- 
mouth, and was there buried." 

I will add here, that through the kindness of the Rev. E. Q. Sewall, 
who examined at my request the church and town records of Barnstable, I 
have learned that Mr. Mayo was one of the original settlers of that town, 
but from what place he came does not appear. The Hon. John Davis has 
also favoured me with the sight of a passage in the records of the Plymouth 
church, which informs us that Mr. Mayo was Teacher in the church at 
Barnstable, while the Rev. John Lothropp was Pastor there, and was thence 
removed to Eastham [Nauset] upon the gathering of a church in that place, 
and was afterward settled in Boston. The Rev. Mr. Shaw of Eastham in- 
forms me, that he cannot find that such a person ever was minister in that 
place ; that previous to his own settlement, there had been but three min- 



* These sermons I met with in the Boston Athenaeum, and found in 
them passages in the finest style of that peculiar puritan eloquence, which 
is so happily imitated in Walter Scott's Romances. 



45 

isters, Mr. Treat, Mr. Webb and Mr. Cheever, with the exception of Mt. 
Osborn, who removed to another part of the town now called Orleans. 
He thinks, therefore, that Mr. Mayors residence must have been only oc- 
casional in the town. — That nothing of Mr. Mayors ministry appears on 
the church records of Eastham, does not, I think, argue any thing against 
his having been minister there ; for he left no records at all of his ministry 
in Boston, and, if it were not for the testimony of other men, would not be 
known to have resided here. 

(4.) p. 6. This fire broke out at five o'clock in the morning, November 
27. It burnt forty-five dwelling houses, and several warehouses, besides 
the meeting-house. Its progress was stopped by a heavy rain. The follow- 
ing vote is all the notice contained in the records of this event. It would 
appear from the last clause, that it was customary at that time for some of 
the pews to be entered by a door through the side of the house. 

" At a church meeting at our Deacon Philips his house, 3 of 10 month, 
1676. 

" Voted and agreed, that Mr. Richards, Brother Collicot, Brother Phil- 
ips, Brother Tyril, Brother Hudson, be appointed as a committee, in order 
to the rebuilding of a meeting-house, for the comfortable attending the 

publick worship of God— and that Mr. K , Mr. W. Taylor, Mr. Mid- 

dlecott, and Mr. Anthony Checkley, be desired to join with the committee, 
in order to the transacting this affair. It was also agreed, that in case any 
that built pews in the meeting-house should see cause afterwards to leave 
them, the pews should be disposed of, not by them, but as the church 
should see cause. And that no pews should be made icith a door into the 
street.'''' 

(5.) p. 7. This was in 1682. Whether there were no gallery before, 
or whether this were an additional gallery, is not absolutely certain^ The 
records of the church only say, " it was agreed that a gallery should be 
built for the boys to sit in, and that the place where they at present &\t 
should be improved for pews." The probability is, that this was the galle- 
ry which, as I have been told, run along behind the pulpit. 

(6.) p. 7- The first was Richard Mather, born in 1596, who, having 
suffered for non-conformity, came to New England in 1635, and was or- 
dained pastor of the church in Dorchester, August 23, 1636. He was " a 
distinguished ornament of the churches," very useful in the several synods 
of that century, an able writer in their defence, and a solid, judicious 
preacher. Mr. Higginson of Salem, speaking of his reply to Mr. Davenport, 
said that " he was a pattern to all the answerers in the world." He died 
April 22, 1669, while moderator of a council in Boston, — which occasioned 
the following epitaph : Vixgrat in synodis, moritva moderator in illis. — He 



46 

left four sons : Samuel, the first, was mentioned in a former note. The se- 
cond, Nathaniel, born in England, March 20, 1630, and graduated at Har- 
vard College, 1647. He was minister for some years in England, and being 
ejected among the two thousand in 1662, went to Holland and settled at 
Rotterdam, succeeded his oldest brother at Dublin in 1671, afterward took 
charge of a church in London, and died July, 1697, aged 67. " There is 
upon his tomb-stone a long Latin inscription by Dr. Watts, which ascribes 
to him a high character for genius, learning, piety, and ministerial fidelity." 
The third son, Eleazar, was born May 13, 1637, and graduated at Har- 
vard College in 1656 ; was ordained first minister at Northampton in 
1661, and died July 24, 1669, aged 32. He appears not to have been 
inferiour to either of his brothers. The fourth son was Increase, — born June 
21, 1639, graduated 1656. 

(7.) p. S. IjfCREASE Mather began to preach the year after leaving 
college, and upon invitation from his brother in Dublin, sailed for England 
July 3, 1657. He proceeded master of arts in Trinity College, Dublin, the 
next year, "performing the usual exercise with great applause,"* and was 
chosen fellow ; but not being able to remain on account of ill health, went 
to England, and for some time preached at Torrington ; then went to the 
Island of Guernsey as preacher, on invitation of the governour ; from 
thence, at the solicitation of his friends, removed to Gloucester, and again, 
after some time, returned to Guernsey, where he was at the time of the 
restoration. It was then required, that he should conform to the establish- 
ed church, or give up his living, and he accordingly returned to England. 
Here '' he was offered a living of several hundreds a year, if he would for- 
sake his principles ; but he chose rather to trust God's providence, than 
violate the tranquillity of his own mind ;"* and therefore he returned to 
New England after an absence of four years. In a memorandum now be- 
fore me, written with his own hand, he says, " Providence so ordered, that, 
the Bishops and Ceremonies prevailing in England, I was constrained (that 
so I might keep my conscience pure) to leave that land ; and being strange- 
ly disappointed and released as to an engagement I was under to go for 
Holland, I was returned to New England in September, 1661." He was 
the next week after his arrival invited to preach at the North Church, and 
continued preaching until ordained. May 27, 1664. His father gave him 
the charge. 

I have said in the sermon that his settlement was conditional. The con- 
ditions were, " if hereafter the Lord should call me to greater service else- 
where, or in case of personal persecutions, wherein not they but I shall be 
aimed at, or of want of health, or if I should find that a competent mainte- 

* Non-conformist's Memorial, II. 245, 246. 



47 

nance for me and mine should not be offered, — then (my relation to them 
notwithstanding) I would be at liberty to return to England, or to remove 
elsewhere." From the account of his son in the Remarkables^ it seems 
that he was far from having a comfortable maintenance during many years, 
and was even distressed with poverty. 

(8.) p. 9. This is according to the representation of Hutchinson and 
others. The following^ minutes in the church records would seem to give a 
little different complexion to the affair. 

" October 30, 1687. After the sermon and service of the afternoon 
ended, I desired the brethren of the church to stay in the meeting-house, 
and proposed to them, that their officers might in their name drav/ up an ad- 
dress of thanks to the king for his declaration, wherein he does promise us 
the free exercise of our religion, and that he will maintain us in the enjoy- 
ment of our rights and possessions. I told the brethren I would take theix 
silence for consent. All were silent. Nemine contradicente. 

"December 11, 1687. I desired the brethren to stay, and acquainted 
them, that it was thought needful that some one should be sent with an ad- 
dress of thanks to the king, for his gracious declaration ; and that it had 
been proposed to me that I should go on the service. I told them, if they 
said to me, go, I would cast myself on the providence of God, and go in his 
name ; but if they said to me, stay, I would not stir. 

" Major Richards and Way declared their willingness and free 

consent that I should go. I said to the brethren, if any of them were oth- 
erwise minded, I desired they would express themselves. Also, 1 would 
take their silence for consent. They were tiien all silent, and so did unan- 
imously consent." 

The account in the Remarkables agrees with this : — " The superiour 
gentlemen thought, that a well quahfied person going over with the addres- 
ses of the churches to the king, might obtain some relief to the growing 
distresses of the country." The voting of addresses was strenuously opposed 
by many, who thought they discovered popery at the bottom. Hutchinson 
quotes a letter from President Danforth to Mather, dated November 8 of 
this year, in which he expresses his apprehensions very strongly. 

(9.) p. 10. He was twice chosen president of the college ; first in 
1681, when he declined the office because his church refused to part with 
him ; and again in 1684, when he accepted it on the condition of still re- 
taining his relation to his church. He relinquished the place in September. 
1701, on account of an act of the General Court requiring the president 
to live at Cambridge. In the Remarkables of his life it is intimated, that 
this vote was aimed against him, personally, and was a measure which his 
enemies carried for the very purpose of removing him. Dr. Eliot, in his 



48 

Biographical Dictionary, attributes his resignation to the pressure of age 
and infirmities. I find only the following vote of his church on this subject : 

" The Brethren of the church being assembled at the desire of the Gov- 
ernour and the General Assembly, and messengers from both houses in the 
General Assembly coming to them with a motion, that they would consent 
unto the removal of their Teacher^s residence to the College in Cambridge — 
the ensuing vote was passed : — Being under the sense of the great benefit, 
we have long enjoyed, by the labour of our Reverend Pastor, Mr. Increase 
Mather, among us, it must needs be unreasonable and impossible for us to 
consent that his relation to us, and our enjoyment of him and them should 
cease. 

*' Nevertheless, the respect we have to the desire and welfare of the 
publick, does compel us to consent, that our good Pastor may so remove 
his personal residence to the College at Cambridge, as may be consistent 
with the continuance of his relation to us, and his visits of us with his pub- 
lick administrations, as often as his health and strength may allow it." 

(10.) p. 11. The expressions quoted in this place are from his Election 
Sermon, 1677. Sentiments and passages of a similar character may be 
found in his two sermons on the Comets, 1680 and 1682, in his volume of 
sermons on Providence, 1688, and in his series of discourses on the Beati- 
tudes, 1717. 

When I made this reference, I intended to quote here a few remarkable 
passages of some length ; but my notes are swelling to such a size, that I am 
forced to omit them. 

(11.) p. 12. It was not till after the sermons were in the press, that I 
was able to procure the Remarkahles^ or I should have modified the state- 
ment in this paragraph. In the thirteenth article of that book, we have an 
account of his change of sentiments on the subject of toleration ; by which 
it appears, that the expressions I have quoted represent him only as he was 
in the earlier part of his life. This article is by far the best and most elo- 
quently written passage, which I have met with in all Cotton Mather's 
works. Probably mucli of the illustration, and even the language, is taken 
from his father. 

(12.) p. 12. The Treatise here referred to was published in 1683, 
and gives " an historical account of all the comets which have appeared 
from the beginning of the world," together with '' the remarkable events 
which have followed them," and, as he supposed, were predicted by them. 
It is a work of considerable labour, showing an extensive acquaintance with 
history, and written in a very good style. The credulity of the age peeps 
out in some curious stories, — which I intended to copy when I referred to 
this pkce, but am compelled to omit for want of room. 



49 

(13.) p. 18. " 1697, 4d. 6m. [August.] This cky the church voted 
a letter of admonition to the church in Charlestown, for betraying the hb- 
erties of the churches in their late putting into the hands of the whole in- 
habitants the choice of a minister." 

I have noticed this vote particularly, because it is sometimes attempted 
to make us beheve, that the choice of ministers by the people, instead of 
the church, is a modern innovation, opposed to the uniform usage in times 
past. Here is an example to the contrary of as long ago as one hundred and 
twenty-four years ; and the example and opinion of the church in Charles- 
town are as valuable in setthng the question of usage^ as those of any other 
church. It satisfies us that usage is not invariable, and that the principle, so 
far from being settled, was actually contested from the first. Accordingly, 
Cotton Mather acknowledges, " Many people would not allow the church 
any privilege to go before them in the choice of a pastor.'' Ratio Disci- 
plincE^ p. 16. And from the following passage {Raf. Disc. p. 17.) it is evi- 
dent that the congregation had not only, in some instances, claimed and ex- 
ercised the right against the church, but that the church had often found it 
necessary, in order to preserve the appearance of a control, which they felt 
they could not exercise, to resort to so numerous a nomination, as to leave 
none for the people to choose whom they had not chosen. — " The churches 
do, sometimes, by their vote, make a nomination of three or four candi- 
dates, for whom the majority of the brethren have so voted, that whomsoev- 
er of these the choice falls upon, it may still be said^ — the church has cho- 
sen him." So that, even at that time, the principle was so far acknow- 
ledged unsound, as to be satisfied with a mere form and show. 

(14.) p. 20. Cotton Mather was invited to assist his father in preach- 
ing, once a fortnight, September 27, 1680, (having been graduated two 
years.) The following February he was requested to do it '•'• once every 
Lord's day." In December, 1682, the church expressed their great satis- 
faction, and desired that his labours might still be continued with a view to 
his settlement. In January, 1683, they gave him a unanimous call, and 
another impatient one in August, 1684. There is an errour in the sermon 
respecting the date of the ordination. It was in 1685 — as will be seen by 
the following extract from the church records : 

'' 2d month, [April,] 5th day, 1685. The brethren stayed in the meet- 
ing-house and unanimously consented, that the 13th day of May should be 
the day for my son Cotton's ordination as their pastor ; and that letters 
should be sent to the two churches in Boston, to Charlestown, Cambridge, 
Roxbury, Dorchester, to desire them to send their messengers to give us the 
right hand of fellowship ; that Mr. Allen and Mr. Willard should be de- 
aired to join with myself in imposing hands." 



50 

(15.) p. 21. The ministry of the two Mathers continued during sixty- 
four years, besides nearly three years that passed before the ordination of 
Increase. The record of church members during this period is very careful 
and complete, there being no less than three separate catalogues. The whole 
number is eleven hundred and four. The record of baptisms is complete 
only after the year 1689, from which time to 1728, (thirty-nine years) the 
whole number recorded is three thousand three hundred and eighty-four. 

The first instance of any one being received to baptism by the half-way 
covenant, as it is called, appears to have been January 15, 1693 ; when I 
find the following minute : — " Received into covenant Mary Sunderland ; 
and her son John baptised. They being the first so admitted, in pursuance 
of the church's addresses unto me for that purpose and practice." The 
half-way covenant has been laid aside since April, 1786. 

Collections for charitable and religious purposes were frequent during 
this period, and I have been surprised at the amount of them. £62 for re- 
deeming captives from the Indians ; £53 for redeeming two persons fronsr 
Turkish captivity ; £80 for relieving three young men from the same ; £44 
for the relief of the poor inhabitants of frontier towns in the east ; £53 at fast 
for the poor, and £60 the same year at thanksgiving for propagation of the 
gospel ; and in 1726 a large contribution was distributed, partly for the 
support of the ministry in destitute places, and partly for the distribution of 
Bibles and other pious books. The church had an " Evangelical Trtasury^'''^ 
for the purpose of promoting religious objects, and distributing Bibles, from 
which considerable sums were frequently appropriated. This was not very 
different from a Bible society. 

It may gratify some to see in this connexion, a copy of a memorandum, 
which I found amongst Deacon Tudor's papers, of the collections in the 
different churches " for the sufferers in the great fire, March 20, 1760, on 
and round Oliver's Dock, part of King Street, &:c." It may serve as 
another link between the charity of Boston at the present day, and the 
year 1698 — when C. Mather said in a sermon, " For charity^ I may indeed 
speak it without flattery, this town has not many equals on the face of the 
earth." 

Brattle Street, £3407. Old South, 1860. King's Chapel, 960. West 
Church, 992. First Church, 1050. New Brick, 445. Old North, 418. 
New North, 1467. Mr. Mather's, 140. Federal Street, 209. Mr. Cundy's 
188. Mr. Bound's, 145. 

(16.) p. 22. The pamphlet published by the Convention was entitled, 
" The Testimony of the pastors of the churches in the Province of the 
Massachusetts Bay in New England, at their annual Convention in Boston, 
May 25, 1743, against several errours in doctrine, and disorders in practice, 
which have of late obtained in various parts of the land, &c." Mr, Gee 



51 

published " A Letter to the Rev. Nathaniel Eells, Moderator of the late 
Convention, «Sfc. containing some remarks on their printed Testimony." 
In this he complains that the title of the pamphlet was calculated to mis- 
lead ; that the pamphlet itself Avas adapted to give false impressions abroad 
and at home of the state of the churches ; that owing to the thinness of 
the Convention, the real opinion of the ministers of the province was not 
represented ; and that no testimony was suffered to be brought forward in 
favour of the revivals in the land ; and in order to attain these objects, he 
publishes the design of another meeting of ministers, to be held the day af- 
ter commencement, [July 7.] The result of this meeting was " The Tes- 
timony and Advice of an Assembly of pastors of churches in New Eng- 
land, <S:c." which, at the same time that it spoke favourably of the great 
religious work, acknowledged that it was accompanied with evils and dan- 
gers, and warned against them. It was signed by fifty-three ministers, and 
by fifteen others, who added a stronger protest against itinerancy, and the 
intruding into parishes without consent of their ministers. Besides these, 
separate testimonies to about the same purport from absent ministers, were 
added in an appendix, and increased the whole number of names to one 
hundred and eleven. 

Gee's attack upon the Convention was answered very satisfactorily by 
Mr. Pfescott of Salem, and Mr. Hancock of Braintree, who make it evi- 
dent that he wrote in great hastiness of temper, and under the influence of 
what he regarded a personal affront. They prove several of his statements 
to be incorrect, and completely defend the doings of the Convention. Dr. 
Chauncy, who had been personally assailed by Mr. Gee, defended himself 
in a letter published in the Boston Evening Post of June 24th, and Mr. Gee, 
according to Mr. Hancock, retracted. 

Another meeting of the "Assembly" was held in September, 1745, 
when a further defence was attempted of the religious excitements of the 
country. This second " Testimony" was signed by Prince, Webb and 
Gee, of Boston, and twenty-one others. 

There were also published, in this feverish season, two " Testimonies" of 
laymen against the prevalent evils of the churches. 

(17.) p. 22. Mr. Gee's parents were members of this church, to 
which they were admitted by dismission from the old church. May 2, 1697. 
He was himself admitted to the church May 13, 1716 ; was graduated at 
Harvard College, 1717; called by the church, October 22, 1723 ; ordained 
December 18. [He had been a candidate at the New Brick with Mr. Wal- 
dron in 1721 ; and had a call to settle in Portsmouth in 1723.] The 
council consisted of " the six churches of the united brethren in this town, 
and the church in Roxbury." C. Mather gave the charge. On the 19th 
day of the next February, I find the following record of C, Mather :— " The 
first baptism administered by Mr. Gee ; and indeed the first that has been 



52 

administered by any hands but tliose of Mather (father and son) in the Old 
North church for more than half a hundred years together." 

It would seem, from the records of the church, that Mr. Gee was a great 
promoter of prayer meetings for the revival of religion, which were frequent- 
ly held during his ministry. The chiirch is also indebted to him for the es- 
tablishment of a library for the use of its pastors, to which he made large 
donations of valuable books. The churclj originally exercised a constant 
superintendence over its concerns by a committee, and provided occasion- 
ally for its increase. For a long time, however, this has been neglected, 
and many of the books have been lost. There are now about a hundred 
Tolumes, principally old folios, and many of them very valuable. 

It was during the ministry of Mr. Gee, in 1733, that the celebrated dif- 
^culties in the first church in Salem occurred, which occasioned its exclu- 
sion for some time from the communion of many of the churches of the 
state. The Old North church, as appears from the records, which are full 
and minute upon this subject, took an active and leading part in this work 
of inquiry and discipline. After writing to and visiting the church and min- 
ister in Salem, it summoned an ecclesiastical council to proceed in the busi- 
ness, and "join with us in taking the second step of the third way of com.- 
munion, wherein we have been visiting the first church of Christ in Salem." 
The minister and church refused to be disciplined, and were in consequence 
shut out from Christian fellowship for many years. It is not until October, 
1745, that I find a letter of penitent acknowledgment, entreating to be re- 
stored to communion, was received and acted upon by the Old North 
church, who took off the sentence of non-communion, with the express 
exception of the late minister. 

(18.) p. 22. Mr. Mather was chosen, January 28, 1732, by sixty-nine 
votes out of one hundred and twelve. The council at his ordination was 
composed of the churches of Boston, Roxbury, Charlestown and Cambridge. 
Dr. Colman gave the charge. 

The number of the church that withdrew with him were thirty men and 
sixty-three women ; the number that remained were eighty men and one 
hundred and eighty-three women. The date of their dismission is Decem- 
ber 21, 1741. The house which they built [at the corner of North Bennet 
Street] is now occupied by a society of Universalists. 

(19.) p. 23. Mr. Checkley was ordained September 3, 1747. The 
churches invited to the council were, the First Church, the New South, the 
Old South, Brattle Street, New North, New Brick, and the church in 
Charlestown. The church in Hollis Street was afterward added. Mr. Gee 
being at this time confined by sickness, the father of the candidate was re- 
•fjnested to give the charge. 



53 

The conjunction of church and society in the management of their 
temporal concerns, first took place in May, 1760 ; at which time it 
was agreed, that the committee, chosen annually on the first Tuesday of 
May, should consist of the deacons, together with five members of the 
church, and four of the congregation. 

(20.) p. 23. The preliminary steps to the choice of Dr. Lathrop, were 
taken by the church and society, March 10, 1768. It was intended to or- 
dain him as colleague to Mr. Checkley, who had been for a long time 
dangerously ill, and died on the 19th day of the same month. The elec- 
tion was made by a unanimous vote, both of church and congregation ; 
the number of the former being twenty-five, and of the latter sixty-seven. 
The ordination took place May 18, 1768. The council was composed of 
the churches of Norwich and Lebanon, Connecticut ; the Old South, the 
New Brick, the New North, and the churches in Mollis Street and Brattle 
Street. Dr. Sewall was moderator. Dr. Eliot introduced the service with 
prayer ; the pastor elect preached from Philip, i. 17 — knowing that I am 
set for the defence of the gospel ; Dr. Pemberton prayed and gave the 
charge ; Dr. Sewall then prayed ; and Mr. Byles gave the right hand of 
fellowship. 

The practice of reading the lines of the psalms separately, was abolish- 
edMay 26, 1771. 

In January, 1773, a monthly church meeting was established for encour- 
agement and assistance in matters of religion. 

April 16, 1786. After several meetings, the church renewed their cov- 
enant engagements, with a new '' declaration of faith and form of confede- 
racy." At the same time a system of discipline and order in regard to 
Baptism and the Lord's Supper was drawn up and established. The chief 
design of this was to remove the obstacles which prevented the access of 
Christians to the table, to abolish the half-way covenant, and provide for the 
baptism of the children of every baptised parent, — receiving no publick 
confession of faith, except from those who design to keep all the ordinances 
of the Lord. Upon this system the church has ever since acted. 



NOTES TO SERMON II. 



(1.) p. 26. I BELIEVE that I have fairly stated the controversy at this 
time, which has not, even yet, lost all its interest. Some small circum- 
stances I have gathered from tradition, but principally from the pamphlets 
published on this occasion, which I found in the Boston Athenaeum, — to 
which copious repository of choice and rare publications relating to the 
history of this country, I am under many obligations. The first is, " An 
Account of the reasons why a considerable number (about fifty, whereof 
ten are members in full communion) belonging to the New North church 
in Boston, could not consent to Mr. Peter Thacher's ordination.'" It has 
this motto : " Ministers shall not be vagrants, nor intrude themselves of 
their own authority into any place which best pleaseth them." It is a 
pamphlet of sixty pages, being a collection of documents interwoven with 
an angry history of the whole matter. In reply, there is " A Vindication 
ef the New North church from several falsehoods spread in a pamphlet 
lately published, &c. ; by several members of that church :" to which are 
added, two postscripts by Mr. Webb and Mr. Thacher. Then was adver- 
tised, but I do not know whether it was published, " An Answer to a scan- 
dalous and lying pamphlet, intituled, a Vindication, &c." The New 
North people wrote with most moderation, though they were clearly in the 
wrong ; while the advocates of the New Brick, though on the right side, 
lost all command of their temper, and wrote with great heat and passion. 

There was also published, " A brief Declaration of Mr. P. Thacher and 
Mr. J. Webb, in behalf of themselves and their church.'" This was in reply 
to a pamphlet of Increase Mather, entitled " A Testimony to the good order 
of the churches;" blaming the proceedings of the New North as Anti-con- 
gregational, and threatening them with ecclesiastical discipline and censure. 
Webb and Thacher declared their intention to conduct regularly, accord- 
ing to Congregational discipline, and defended their doings as such. 



55 

The two Mathers sent a letter to the dissatisfied party the day preced- 
ing the ordination, earnestly entreating them to be quiet, and do nothing 
disorderly. It appears to liave had no effect. 

''July 19, 1722. It was agreed upon and voted, that the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper should be administered in the revolution of every fourth 
sabbath from August 12, 1722.' ' 

(2.) p. 27. The names of those gathered into a church state at this 
time were, Alexander Sears, Solomon Townsend, William Lee, Nathaniel 
Loring, Moses Pierse, Daniel Pecker, Josiah Baker, Henry Wheeler, John 
Waldo, James Tilestone. S, Townsend and W. Lee were chosen the first 
deacons. 

The original covenant is not a profession of faith, except so far as a be- 
lief in the Christian religion, and in the doctrine of the trinity, is asserted * 
but is rather an engagement to walk strictly in the commandments and or- 
dinances of the gospel. It being the custom of many churches at that time 
to require a relation of the religious experiences of those who offered them- 
selves for admission, a vote was passed, (August 9, 1722,) " that we would 
receive them with, and encourage their making of relations according to the 
usage of many of our New England churches ; but will not impose them on 
such as we shall find averse to them. But upon having our charity satis- 
fied any other Avay, we will look upon them meet for our fellowship, and 
admit them to it." 

The persons who commenced the building were in number twenty-four, 
whose names are recorded in the proprietors' books. The number increas- 
ed to forty before the work was completed. The building committee (cho- 
sen December 12, 1720) consisted of John Frisel, Thomas Lee, Jonathan 
Montfort, Alexander Sears, James Tileston, James Pecker, and Edward 
Pell. This last named gentleman drew the plan of the house. — The choice 
of pews was made May 8, 1721, the first choice being given to John Frisel 
and William Clark, " for their good will and great benefactions to said 
work ;" — then to the building committee ; — and then to the other proprie- 
tors in an order determined by lot. 

At the dedication. Dr. Increase Mather was first desired to preach, but 
excused himself on account of his great age. He commenced the morning 
service with prayer, which was closed with prayer by Mr. Cooper. The 
afternoon service commenced with prayer by Dr. Colman, and was closed 
by Mr. Prince. 

A time-piece was presented to the church by Mr. Barret Dyre in June 
®f this year. It kept its place in the meeting-house until 1820, when it was 
removed, and its place supplied with a new one at the expense of Samuel 
Parkman, Esq. 



56 

There was no cellar under the house until the year 1762. It was com- 
pleted at the cost of a thousand pounds, and, after some difficulties, paid 
for by subscription. 

In front of the pulpit were originally two pews, the one for the Elder^ 
seat, the other for the Deacon's seat. They were thrown into one in 1766, 
" as has been lately done at the Old North, and at Mr. Cooper^s," (Brattle 
Street.) 

A second gallery was originally built only at the west end, and never, 
I believe, on either of the other sides. This was closed up and converted 
into a hall for a singing school and other purposes, in 1808. A vote passed 
in January, 1751, ""to build an upper gallery for the women at the east 
end of the meeting-house, if the money can be raised by subscription." 
This however was not accomplished. — There was no access to the gallery 
originally, except by stairs within the meeting-house, of which there were 
three flights ; at the north-west, south-west, and south-east corners. The 

stairs in the north-west corner were removed in . The south porch 

was so altered as to contain stairs for the accommodation of the singers in 
1801. In 1821 it was taken down, rebuilt of a larger size, so as to contain 
stairs of an easy access, and those which remained in the south-east and 
south-west corners were removed. At the same time all the remaining 
square pews were taken down, and long pews erected in their room. 

The first bell was hung in 1743, and the same year the meeting-house 
was for the first time painted. This bell was removed and sold in 1780, and 
the bell of the Old North, which was larger, was hung in its place. It was 
injured in 1792, and forbidden to be rung, except in case of fire, till it was 
recast in the same year, and was the first bell from the foundry of the late 
Paul Revere, Esq. — which appears by the following inscription upon it : 
'' The first church bell cast in Boston, 1792, by P. Revere." 

(3.) p. 27. Mr. Waldron was chosen minister, September 26, 1721, 
by a vote of the proprietors, fifty out of sixty-three. The other votes were for 
Mr. Gee. At his ordination, Mr. Sewall commenced with prayer ; Dr. Cot- 
ton Mather preached from 1 John, iv. 7 ; Dr. Increase Mather gave the 
charge ; Mr. Wads worth the right hand of fellowship ; and Mr. Waldron 
closed with prayer. 

" August 23, 1725. Voted, that Mr. Waldron be supplied with constant 
help for six months ensuing from this day." — A vote of this nature was fre- 
quently passed in both churches, while there was but one minister ; it being 
thought that the strength of one was inadequate to the whole duty. 

Mr. Waldron died September 11, 1727. 

(4.) p. 28. January 16, 1727. Mr. Welsteed was chosen by a vote 
of fifty-four out of sixty-four. At his ordination, Mr. Sewall and Mr. Coop- 



57 

er prayed ; Dr. Colman gave the charge ; and Mr. Walter the right hand of 
fellowship. " One of the first acts of the church after this ordination was to 
reconsider and renew the vote about relations, passed August 9, 1722. — A 
truly Christian act." 

The reading of the scriptures, as part of the publick service, commenced 
in 1729, as appears by a vote of April 14,—" that the Bible Capt. Henry 
Deering has made an offer of to the church, in order for Mr. Welsteed's 
reading and expounding, be accepted." 

December 22, 1736. Mr. William Hooper received a unanimous call to 
settle as colleague with Mr. Welsteed. He, however, on the third day of 
the next month, received a unanimous call from the West Church, on that 
day gathered, over which he was ordained May 18th, 1737. He afterward 
received Episcopal ordination, and was rector of Trinity Church. 

In January, 1731, fifty pounds were collected at a contribution for the 
relief of the inhabitants of Marblehead, distressed by the small pox. 

Mr. Gray was elected by a unanimous vote, April 3, 1738. The coun- 
cil at the ordination consisted of '^ the united churches in Boston, the 
churches of Rumny Marsh, (Chelsea,) Roxbury, Cambridge, and Charles- 
town." The pastor elect preached, from Isaiah vi. 5 — 8; Mr. Welsteed 
and Mr. Webb prayed ; Dr. Colman gave the charge ; and Dr. Sewall the 
right hand cf fellowship. — The part taken by Mr. Webb is the earliest no- 
tice we have of a reconciliation with the New North church. 

'^ August 22, 1739. Unanimously voted, to desire Mr. James Halsy to 
take his proper place in the Elder's seat. 

" Voted, to leave the affair of making a stairway in the westernmost 
porch with the committee." This was never done. 

(5.) p. 31. Dr. Pemberton was chosen, December 31, 1753, by a 
vote of fifty-four out of fifty-six, two persons not voting. The vote of the 
church was unanimous. He had resigned his charge at Ncav York, by ad- 
vice of the Synod, on the 18th of November, and was at that time in corres- 
pondence with this church, who had expressed their strong desire to receive 
him as their minister. Part of this correspondence appears on the pages of 
the proprietors' records ; as also a copy of the doings of the Synod, by 
which he was dismissed with honour, and recommended as " a regular min- 
ister, of an exemplary, pious conversation, who has to an uncommon degree 
maintained the dignity of the ministerial character ; — eminently endowed 
with ministerial abilities, whose labours have been acceptable and highly 
esteemed throughout these churches." 

The council at the installation, March 6, 1754, consisted of the First, 
the Old South, and the New North churches. By whom the several parts 
were performed, I cannot learn. No entry is made upon the church book 
of records during Dr. Pemberton's ministry, except the names of a few bap- 

8 



58 

tised and admitted to communion. The catalog^ue of church members, from 
the beginning, is exceedingly imperfect, so that no estimate at all can be 
made of the number. 

It was during his ministry, [August, 1757,] that taxes were first laid for 
the support of the gospel in this society. Dependance had been previous- 
ly had upon voluntary contributions collected every Sunday ; but this 
mode had been found the occasion of so much confusion, embarrassment 
and debt, that it Avas noAv abolished. For many years, the income was in-^ 
sufficient to pay Dr. Pemberton's salary, and he every year generously relin- 
quished his claim to the deficiency. 

" October 7, 1762. Voted, that the singers sound the base at the end of 
the lines, whenever they think proper." I copy this vote simply because I 
do not know what it means. 

In 1763, an attempt was made to settle a colleague with Dr. Pemberton, 
and Mr. Tennant was the man intended for the place. Circumstances, how- 
ever, prevented the design from being accomplished. 

In May, 1771, the first Baptist church requested that the use of the New 
Erick meeting-house might be allowed them for worship, during the time 
that they should be building ; and accordingly, from June 23 to December 
8, the two congregations worshipped together, their ministers preaching al- 
ternately the half of each sabbath. Dr. Stillman's first sermon was preach- 
ed from Psalm cxxxiii. 1, and his last from 2 Corinthians, xiii. 11. In this 
place also it may be mentioned, that in June, 1802, when the New North 
society were about rebuilding their meeting-house, an invitation was given 
them to attend worship with this church, and the two congregations united 
in the services of the sabltath, until the completion of the new meetings 
house in May, 1804. 

(6.) p. 32. The British troops, during the blockade of Boston, treated 
the churches with particular disrespect. The steeple of the West Church 
they destroyed, because they supposed it had been used as a signal staff; 
the Old South they turned into a circus, or riding school ; the Old North 
they took down for the sake of the fuel, of which its massy timber afforded 
abundance ; " although there were then large quantities of coal and wood 
in the town. The house, which was built in 1677, was in very good repair, 
and might have stood many years longer, had not those sons of violence, 
with wicked hands, razed it to the foundation." Church Records. 

The two societies worshipped together from the 31st of March, 1776 ; 
but the plan of perpetual union was not proposed until May 6th, 1779. On 
that day, which was the day of the state fast, a vote was passed, ''that the 
two said churches should be united as one body," and a committee was ap- 
pointed, of three from each society, with the deacons, to take the necessary 
measures toward accomplishing the affair. The committee on the part of 



59 

the Old North were, Samuel Austin, Col. Proctor, and Joseph Kittel ; of 
the New Brick, William Paine, Newman Greenough, and Thomas Hichborn. 

The deacons were three ; John Tudor, Brown, and Greenough. 

The committee reported on the 27th of June, and the union took place 
without one dissenting voice, in the most amicable manner, and under the 
most auspicious circumstances. The whole proceedings are recorded bj 
Deacon Tudor with great minuteness. 

In January, 1780, Dr. Lathrop's salary was raised from one hundred to 
two hundred dollars a week ; in May to four hundred ; in September to 
eight hundred. In December, £2000 were raised to purchase his winter\s 
wood. 

The large Bible, which was used in the Old North church, was presented 
by the committee, in behalf of the society, to the second church in New- 
ton, at the time of Mr. Greenough's settlement there, in 1781. 

In 1781 I find record of a baptism by immersion of a child about ten 
years old, at the particular request of the mother, '' a bathing tub being 
prepared for that purpose in the meeting-house." 

(7.) p. 33. On this occasion, the Rev. President Kirkland introduced 
the religious service with prayer ; Dr. Ware preached from Philip, iv. 17, 
/ desire fruit that may abound to your account ; Rev. Mr. Fiske of West 
Cambridge made the ordaining prayer; Dr. Allyn of Duxbury gave the 
charge ; Rev. Mr. Parkman presented the right hand of fellowship ; Dr, 
Holmes of Cambridge made the concluding prayer. 



I HAVE said nothing in the sermon of the Synods in which Increase 
Mather was engaged. At the time of his arrival from England in 1662, the 
country was much excited and divided about the result of the Synod which 
had set in the spring of that year, and which had published certain proposi- 
tions relating to church membership. The fifth of these, which provided, that 
the children of all who have been baptised in infancy, and are not scanda- 
lous in life, and make publick profession of faith, are entitled to baptism, 
— was the occasion of warm discussion. Mr. Mather, though but a young 
man, distinguished himself in the opposition to the Synod, who appointed 
Mr. Mitchel of Cambridge, so much praised by Baxter, to answer him. 
Mather was convinced by the arguments of Mitchel, and afterward publish- 
ed in defence of the proposition he had opposed. — The other writers in the 
controversy were Dr. Chauncy, president of the college, against the Synod, 
who was answered by Mr. Allin, of Dedhara ; — and Mr. Davenport of New 
Haven, who was answered by Mr. Mather the elder, father of Increase. 

He was also an important member of the Synod of 1679, by which he was 
appointed one of the preachers, and moderator at its second session in 1680. 



60 

This was the Reforming Synod, called together to consider " What are the 
evils that have provoked the Lord to bring his judgments on New England ; 
and what is to be done that so those evils may be reformed ?" Mr. Emerson 
in his History of the First Church, informs us, that this was occasioned by 
the long continued controversy between the First and Old South churches, \ 
and that the inquiry was in fact aimed against the Old South. 



ERRATA. 

Page 20, for 1684, read 1685. 

22, for 1745, read 1743. 

for September, read July. 



LibHAHY Ul- aOT 




014 014 373 A 



